Hey guys, hope you're all doing ok.

Here's today's update, hope you enjoy the chapter.

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Nina

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my imagination

They watched a couple of episodes together before calling it a night. Adam was getting more and more hung up on the series, but he also liked having the perfect excuse to be with Kim a while longer, not that he needed one anyway.

Just like he said, he decided to take Gracie back to his place. He hated the idea of having to wake her up, but he really wanted for her to sleep comfortably in her pjs and she also didn't have any fresh clothes for the next day.

He really needed to talk about that with Kim. There were thousands of details that he didn't think about that were going to pop up as time went by, and they just had to find a way to deal with them.

Adam scooped Gracie out of his car, he was relieved to see that she was still asleep. He gently woke her up when he took her to her room and helped her into her pjs and tucked her into bed. As he was ready to do the same he heard the soft ding of his phone.

I know you just left, but I just wanted to tell you you left Gracie's lunchbox here. I'll bring it to school tomorrow ;)

Crap! I thought you were writing to tell me how you wished I hadn't left.

Hmmm… maybe a little bit of that too.

Lol

Is it crazy to want to kiss you again even though I just did?

Probably. But in that case, we both might be a little crazy, then.

Good to know we have that in common Ms. B.

Good night detective

Nite and thanks about the lunchbox

Anytime. X

They both went to bed with a smile.

The morning was busy, Adam managed to do everything he had to on time and as much as he hoped to run into Kim when he dropped off Grace at school, he didn't even get to see his favorite elementary teacher.

He was happy that cases were jumping at them like popcorn. It kept him busy and it made it seem as time was running by faster. He had nothing specific to do or anywhere in particular to go, but he just figured he was a little bit closer to seeing Kim again, and that was good enough for now.

"So, how did the night end? You seem to be in a very good mood today." Atwater teased his friend as they were doing surveillance together.

"The night ended with me changing Grace into her pajamas and tucking her into bed." He chuckled at Kevin's surprised eyes. "Not the answer you were expecting, huh?"

"Sometimes I forget about your good uncle duties. Bet if Grace hadn't been there the story would have been different." Adam smiled at the memory of last night.

"Yeah, maybe." He sounded doubtful. "I don't know, I think it's different with Kim." Kevin's eyes were huge as he listened to Adam's confession.

"Ok, ok. Who are you? And what have you done to Adam Ruzek?" They both laughed.

"Shut up, man! This is me. Maybe I just needed to meet the right one. I don't know." Kev smiled and patted his friend's shoulder.

"That's nice bro. So I guess this new arrangement that you have for Grace is working out."

"Gracie loves it and I do too."

"And Kim?"

"Kim is wonderful. She seems like she's enjoying this too and I keep on telling her to talk to me if this becomes too much for her, but so far I think we're fine."

"I'm glad. You deserve a break from all this crap." Adam looked down. "We're gonna get them and this is all gonna be over."

"I hope so."

After a few long hours they were back at the bullpen with the information they needed. When Kevin walked up to the whiteboard to fill in some blanks, Hank stepped out of his office to address his unit.

"Listen up." Everybody's heads were up and looking at him. "I know we're not very fond of these types of events, but there is a charity gala being held the following Saturday. The invitation was extended to all first responders of the city, but Deputy Miller insisted we should be there considering all the attention that has been brought up to us lately. You will all be getting your invitations in the mail briefly, but I wanted to give you the heads up first." Voight didn't say anything, but he really didn't have to. Adam knew that this attention that he was talking about had to do with Kit's case and all the resources that were used to try and put those scumbags behind bars once and for all.

Hank turned around and started to walk back to his office when he spoke again.

"Ruzek, my office."

"Yes, sir." He stood up and followed his sergeant, closing the door behind him. "Is everything ok, Sarge?"

"Yes. Take a seat please." Adam did as his boss instructed. "There's new intel on your brother's case. I've been working closely with a couple of my CI's, trying to dig some information to use and finally bring them down. I managed to find some strings to pull from."

"What do you need me to do boss? Just tell me, whatever it is and I'll do it."

"Right now, I just want to continue with your normal life. We can't afford to call any more attention into this and just have a lot to take care of, too. Antonio is giving me a hand now, he's happy to help. I'm just telling you this so you can rest assured that I didn't forget about this and that we'll solve it. I'll keep you posted and ask for your help if I consider it necessary. Is that alright?"

"Yes, sir." He wasn't really convinced of staying out of this. He wanted to bring his brother and Anne back home. He wanted his niece to see her parents, but he knew that he needed to play this by Voight's rules. He wasn't risking another failure, not when so much was on the line.

When he was dismissed by Voight, he got up and went back to his desk to finish what he was working on.

They had everything they needed to close the case they were working on right now, but they needed to wait until the exchange to catch them red handed, which according to their sources it was set to happen first thing in the following morning.

Everyone was sent home and Adam was glad he had enough time to go pick up Grace.

Kim was getting the children ready to leave. This week she was one of the teachers assigned to the gate, so she got to leave with them.

Just as she was calling them to line up, Gracie walked up to her with a piece of paper in her hand.

"Sorry Ms. B. I forgot to give you this before." Kim took the slip of paper that the little girl handed to her and read it.

"That's great that your uncle can make it to field day!" Gracie nodded with a big and shy grin on her face. It was hard enough for her to spend that day without her dad, it would have been awful if Adam wasn't able to make it either.

"Why is your uncle coming and not your mom and dad? Field day is for mommies and daddies, not uncles and aunts." Sometimes Kim hated that about her students. Their questions were so innocent that they had no idea how much they could be hurting someone with their words, even if they didn't mean anything by them. That's exactly what happened with Tara's question. It was innocent, it was just a curious question but it'd made Gracie cry.

Tara looked back and forth between Grace and Kim with big worried eyes, as Kim hugged Grace and talked to Tara.

"Tara, Gracie's parents are away on a business trip and she misses them very much. That's why her uncle is coming."

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to make her cry."

"I know honey. Maybe you should apologize to Grace now. Let her know that you're sorry and that you didn't mean it like that." Tara apologized, but it didn't make her stop crying. Kim offered to let her stay in the room with Bugs while she dismissed the class and Grace agreed to it. Before leaving with the rest of the kids, she asked one of the student teachers to watch Grace while she was at the gate.

It was funny to see the reaction her body had to seeing Adam. Her stomach would twist just like when she was in the ninth grade and she'd see her crush walk by. It was also funny to see some moms approach him, introducing themselves and offering to help out with Grace or to drop her off or whatever they could think of. She was a bit bothered at first, feeling that green little monster creeping in, but when she felt his eyes on her, all of that disappeared.

That was until he started freaking out when he couldn't find his niece in the line.

Kim tried to calm him down by looking at him, and it kind of worked. When most of her kids had left she walked over to Dora, who was always supervising the gate, to tell her what was going on and then walked over to Adam.

"Detective Ruzek, could you come with me for a second?" He just nodded and went after Kim, leaving all the moms that were still there murmuring and gossiping. Adam couldn't care less. He just wanted to know what was going on with his niece. "She's fine, don't worry." She began to explain holding herself back not to touch his arm or any other public display of affection.

"What happened then?" He asked as they both walked to the classroom to find Gracie.

"She gave me the field day slip and another girl asked her why her parents weren't coming and Gracie started to cry. I asked if she wanted to stay in with Bugs and then come back for her so she could come down. Steph is watching her." Adam looked at her like he had no idea who she was talking about. "Steph is one of our student teachers, Gracie knows her."

"I just want all of this to be over."

"I know." She didn't know what to do. She wanted to hug him or kiss him for that matter, but it wasn't an option inside the school. They kept walking in silence until they reached the room. "Hey bear, look who I found outside waiting for you." Kim said as she stepped in, before thanking Steph for staying with Grace.

"Uncle Adam!" The little girl ran to him and jumped to his extended arms.

"What's wrong, muffing? Missing mom and dad?" He asked as he wiped the tears on her little face with the pad of his thumb. Gracie nodded and hid in her uncle's chest, he rubbed her back and started talking. "You know I miss them too, right? But something tells me that they are going to be back sooner than we expect. For now, we're still going to hang around together and we are going to do a lot of fun things so you can tell them all about it when they come back. What do you think?" Gracie nodded again, not moving away from the comfort of her uncle's arms. She felt safe there. Right now, he was the only stable thing she had and she needed to hold on to that.

"Gracie, how about we make a scrapbook for them?" Kim said, calling the little girl's attention. "That way you can also show them all the things you've done." It was also a way to keep her entertained and thinking about happy things.

"I think that's a great idea. What do you think, muffin?" Adam asked.

"I like it."

"Great! Then next time we're together, we'll work on that. Sounds good?" This time Kim asked while extending out her pinky finger.

"Yes!" Gracie's smile was back again, and her little pinky entwined Kim's, promising to make that book together.

"Are you ready to go home now? Do you have everything in your backpack and your lunchbox?"

"Yes Ms.B."

"Good girl. See you both tomorrow then."

"Actually, I need to tell you two things before we go." Adam put Gracie down and asked her to get her things.

"What's up?"

"We have an early morning tomorrow, do you mind picking Grace up from the district and bringing her with you?

"Sure, no problem. What else?"

"Yesterday I realised we really need to organize ourselves in case something like last night happens again. Maybe keep a change of clothes at your house or something like that."

"Yeah, makes sense."

"Ok. Good." He was a bit nervous as he put both his hands in his pockets. "I thought that it would be good for you to have this, too. You know? Just in case." He took one of his hands out and handed her a set of keys.

"What's this?"

"Those are the keys to my place. I figured it would come in handy if I'm ever stuck in a raid or something." Kim took the keys shyly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. All of Gracie's essentials are there. And if you ever need to drop her off or pick her up. I don't know. I think it will make the logistics easier."

"Ok. yeah." She took the keys and looped them with her own keyring.

"See you tomorrow then?" He changed the subject, not wanting to make this more serious than what it actually was.

"Yes, tell me at what time you need me there."

"Ok." He walked closer to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Kim felt like she was about to melt. Especially when he kissed the corner of her mouth. "Say goodbye to Ms. B, Grace." The little girl went to her teacher and hugged her goodbye.

"I'll see you both tomorrow." She waved the Ruzeks with a smile as they both walked away.