Hey everyone!

Here's the second chapter of this story.

I'm still figuring it out as I write, so tell me what you think so far.

Happy reading!

Xo,

Nina

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination.

Adam was tired. He was beginning to realize that it wasn't only hangovers that could lower his energy, but also the new morning logistics was taking a lot out of him. Before it was just getting up, putting some clothes on, grabbing coffee and buying something to eat on the way there. Now, it was getting up earlier, waking Gracie up, getting her ready, doing her hair and making sure she had everything for school, fixing her lunch, feeding her breakfast and dropping her off. It exhausted him only to think about it.

He was currently rushing through some paperwork, he really needed to be on time if he wanted to be taken seriously, he wasn't used to this at all.

"What's wrong?" Kevin's voice made him lift his head away from the documents he was signing to look at his friend.

""Nothing. I just really wanna get this done so I can go to Gracie's school."

"Oh, that's today?"

"Yeah." He sighed and his friend knew how stressed out Adam was about everything.

"How's the little homie doing?"

"I'm not sure. She seems fine, but it worries me that I'm not seeing an outlet you know. She's been through a lot and is acting like nothing happened at all."

"And how are you? We haven't talked about this much."

"I feel like a failure. I feel like I could never compensate for what Grace lost."

"You know I'm not only talking about that. How are you coping with everything?" He let go of the pen he was holding and connected with Kevin for the first time in the whole day.

"I'm doing the best I can. There are days I feel like crap and days that I just force myself not to think about it. I guess I need more time."

"You know I'm right here brother. For you and for Gracie."

"I know."

"Tell you what, you start heading to your meeting and I'll finish up this for you."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'll stop by your place at night to grab a beer and hopefully help you take your mind off things." Adam nodded with a faint smile, he liked the plan and he surely needed it.

The drive to St. Luke's Academy was faster than he thought, the traffic was much lighter than when he usually drives Grace to school and apparently the green lights wanted to humor him today.

That building always amazed him. It was so much different to the school he had been to when he was younger, but that's where Gracie's mom had gone to and she was super adamant that her kids would go there too. In the end it was a good decision, Grace loved it and there was no denying that it was a great school.

He had to wait a couple of minutes before the principal was ready to talk to him. When Adam walked into the office, he was greeted by Mrs. Quinn, an elegant woman, probably in her fifties.

She listened to him attentively as he explained the whole situation, promising to do everything in her power to make this as easy as possible for Grace, reassuring Adam that they will keep him posted if anything happened and that little Gracie was being taken care of and supported by each one of the faculty members.

"I really appreciate you coming by and letting us know the whole situation Detective Ruzek. We know that you also requested to speak with Gracie's teacher, she will be in shortly. Maybe in the meantime you can update all the contact information and a few other details that we need to sort out."

"Yes, of course. Thank you so much for your time Mrs. Hunter." He shook the woman's hand and watched her leave. With all the papers laid out in front of him, he was trying to decide where to start while he waited.

A couple of minutes later he heard the door opening again.

"Mr. Ruzek, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. We had a bit of a classroom emergency, you'd be surprised to know everything that can go on at once when you are with a group of first graders." She sounded sweet, and if his job training could tell home one thing, was that her voice was giving away that she was truly sorry and Maybe a little nervous too.

"Don't worry. I was entertained by all these forms I need to complete." Once again he spoke without moving his eyes away from the papers, that was an old habit that he knew he had to break.

The young woman walked around the desk and the detective sitting there, for her to sit on the chair across from him.

"Kimberly Burgess." She extended her hand to him. "It's a pleasure to meet to Mr. Ruzek." He lifted his head up and instantly smiled, he could never forget that face and those eyes even if he wanted to. He took her hand and identified the exact moment in which she realized who he was.

"So. I finally did get you to tell me your name. For fuerte reference, it's Detective Ruzek but you can call me Adam." The flirty lopsided smirk appeared involuntary on his face as did his cocky attitude.

"This is an interesting plot twist." The thought of that night came running back to her and she want really sure how that was making her feel.

"Indeed. Now, everything makes sense. You didn't want to tell me who you were because it wasn't the proper thing to do, to be out so late on a school night."

"And I'm guessing you agreed to my terms because the wife and the daughter couldn't find out where you really were." Their hands were still touching and the tone of their voices was a bit defiant.

"I don't have a wife."

"Whatever. You know what I mean." When she realized she hadn't let go of his hand yet she quickly dropped it and nervously put strands of hair behind her ear."

"Are you jealous?" He asked with a smile as he raised one of his eyebrows.

"Hell no! It's just that this is super messed up. You are one of my students' father and we made out in a bar."

"And it was amazing." She was about to nod when she realized what she was doing.

"You don't get it do yo?"

"Gracie is not my daughter." He blurted out before she could say anything else.

"What?"

"She's my niece. My brother and my sister in law had to travel… for work. They didn't know how long it could take so they left her with me. That's why I'm here today, to let you all know that and to check on her. She hasn't really opened up about any of this with me, I thought that maybe here it was different."

Something about Adam's confession made her relax and shift back into teacher mode.

Kim was an extremely dedicated teacher, one of those who really considered her students her kids and would do anything to make sure they were alright and happy. She loved her job so much, and although she equally loved all her kids and couldn't publicly admit to having favorites, she built stronger bonds with some of them. Grace Ruzek was one of those kids. For some reason she felt a strong connection with the girl and she knew it was reciprocal.

"Well, she hasn't mentioned anything here either, but her behavior hasn't changed. Gracie has been the same both in the classroom and when she's playing with her friends. But I'll keep an eye on her, maybe get her to open up a bit. We'll let you know immediately if anything pops-up here."

"I really appreciate that."

"Yeah, no problem."

"You know? Anne, my sister in law, told me that she knew that you would have Gracie's back during this process. I think that gave her some peace of mind."

"That's nice to hear." She said with a bright smile on her face that caused Adam to want to kiss her again.

"I guess I'll be seeing you around." He smiled at her.

"I guess so." She extended her hand again, but this time she didn't get the warm contact of his skin, instead he handed her his card and Kim couldn't help but let a soft chuckle escape her mouth.

"You do know that we have your contact information in the administration department if we need to reach you, right?"

"I do. I'm just hoping you'd want to contact me outside of school hours." Kim just rolled her eyes at him.

"Hmmm. I highly doubt that." She took the card anyway and slid it in her back pocket, making Adam raise both his eyebrows and smile faintly.

"I guess we'll see. It was a pleasure getting to know your name this time." He took her hand and shook it. "I'll see you around." He turned around to leave the office happy to have found his mystery girl.