Hey everyone, hope you're doing great!

Over here it's pretty busy... but as promised here's an update.

I will do my best to update again soon. Hopefully after this week things will be not as hectic and I will be able to write more often.

Thanks for all the love this story gets! You're amazing!!

Happy reading!

Xoxo

Nina

The minutes turned into hours, the hours turned into days and the days had turned into almost two weeks.

Two weeks in which Kim's family had showed up, in which Hailey showed up crying at the hospital and Adam just hugged her and apologized for talking to her the way he did. Two weeks in which Kit and Adam finally hugged each other again, in which they had to tell Gracie that aunt Kim was hurt. But most importantly, two weeks in which Kim's eyes remained closed

Adam's original plan to stay at the hospital every waking second took an unexpected turn when Grace began to have trouble adjusting to her new reality. Of course she loved her parents and she had missed them a lot, but this was all too much for a six year old to take. So they all decided to make the transition gradual. For that reason Gracie was still spending some nights with her uncle and either Sylvie or Kim's parents stayed at the hospital.

"Uncle Adam?" She was already in her pjs ready to go

to bed, but right now they were watching a movie together on the couch. Both of them needed extra cuddles.

"What muffin?"

"When can I go visit Aunt Kim? I miss her. School is not the same without her."

"No?"

"No. Our new teacher is not nearly as nice or fun as Aunt Kim."

"Well, that's because there's only one Aunt Kim." He took Grace and sat her on his lap. "And we're so lucky to have her." He kissed her chubby cheek. "You want to go see her, huh?"

"Yes. I drew her a picture and I want to give it to her."

"Ok. We'll have to ask mom and dad to see what they think. I'm sure she would love to have you there."

"Then why haven't you taken me before?" Grace was a bit angry because she didn't understand why nobody told her the truth about how her teacher was.

"Princess, you do know that Aunt Kim was in a car accident, right?"

"Yes, I know. After she told Aunt Hailey to take me." Sometimes Adam forgets that Gracie was right there when it happened.

"That's right.

You see? The crash was pretty big and Aunt Kim got really hurt. Those first days she wasn't in really good shape and we didn't want you to see her like that because it was a bit scary."

"Why? I'm gonna love her even if she looks bad." Adam laughed and squeezed her between his arms as he left a kiss on her temple. "Did you stop loving her because she looked ugly?" Adam couldn't help but chuckle at his niece's comment. Although the questioning look and the killer stare on her face gave him the chills, she looked scarier than Voight, but the fact that she was worried about him loving Kim under this situation was just too adorable.

"No, muffin. First of all, I think I even love her more than before. And second, your Aunt Kim couldn't look ugly even if she tried."

"Yup, because she looks like princess Belle."

"Exactly." He kissed the top of her head. "Now, I think that it's time for bed and maybe tomorrow we can go visit her."

"Ok!" Her face was filled with excitement, she practically jumped down from Adam's lap and started to walk to her room.

"Hey! No good night Uncle Adam? I love you, you are the best uncle in the whole wide world?" He pouted and Gracie giggled running back to hug his neck with her short little arms.

"Good night Uncle Adam. I love you!"

"I love you too, Gracie. Come on, I'll tuck you in."

Once alone in his room he took his phone and called Kit.

"Hey little bro? How's everything doing? Is Gracie alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Fed, showered and tucked in bed."

"Look at you being all fatherly." Adam let out a faint laugh. "Listen Adam, I think with everything that's going on right now, Anne and I never properly thanked you for what you did. How you took care of our girl as if she was your own. I'm damn proud of you."

"You don't need to thank me. I did what you'd have done and to be honest, I'm not sure if I could've done without Kim, so…"

"How is she?"

"The same."

"Well, that's good right? I mean she's not getting worse."

Kit and Anne had visited Kim a couple of times, as well as Bob. They knew what an important piece of the puzzle she was and how much Gracie cares about her. Anne was constantly taking flowers to her room and trying to lift up the energy in that place because she was sure that was going to help her wake up.

"I guess." Nothing anyone said to Adam could lift him up, all he needed right now was for Kim to wake up. "Listen, I wanted to talk to you both about something. Is Anne around?"

"Yes, she's right here. Let me put the phone on speaker."

"Hey Adam, I'm here. Is everything alright?"

"Hi, Annie. Everything is fine, don't worry. I wanted to ask you something. Tonight, right before going to bed, Grace asked me if she could go visit Kim. She misses her. I said I was going to check in with you. But considering that her bruises and cuts are healing, maybe it wouldn't be so bad for her to go."

"Of course." They both said at the same time. "She's been asking us the same thing for quite a while. We didn't bring it up because we didn't want to add any more pressure to you." Anne added. "I think it would be good for both of them, you know?"

"Thank you guys. I was thinking of taking her tomorrow morning, and then dropping her off at school."

"That's perfect, Adam." Kit approved. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Ha! Can you wake her up?"

"I wish I could, bro."

"I'm going to sleep, I'm exhausted. I'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow."

"Good night, Adam. We'll call tomorrow morning to say hello to Gracie."

"Ok. Good night guys." He finally hung up and sighed, scrolling through his camera roll and stopped on one of the pictures they had taken together when they were at the resort. "God, Kim. Let me see your smile again. Please." He turned off his phone and did his best to fall asleep.

The sun creeping in through the window woke him up before his alarm went off. He could sleep for a few more minutes, but lately sleep wasn't something that came easy to him. So he got out of bed and jumped into the shower only to go start breakfast for him and Grace. It was going to be one hell of a day for the little one and he wanted to make sure she would eat.

His niece ate quietly, she was still half asleep and to be honest, he appreciated the lack of questions this morning. Lately, Grace would ask him things that he had no idea how to answer.

After eating, he got their things ready and walked to his truck. The ride was surprisingly quiet too, until her little voice expressed the confusion in her mind.

"Are you ok?" She sounded worried.

"I am, muffin. Why?"

"This is not the way to school."

"Well, didn't you say you wanted to visit Aunt Kim?"

"We're going to see Aunt Kim!?" She almost scream and Adam smiled.

"We are."

"But I didn't get the drawing I made for her."

"You mean this one?" He showed her a sheet of paper that he took from her room earlier this morning and now rested on the passenger's seat. "It's lovely by the way."

"Thank you." Grace said proudly. "It's our family portrait."

"Oh, I see."

"That's pops, and that's mommy and daddy, that's me." She started to explain as she pointed with her little finger. "That's you and Aunt Kim."

"Let me guess, that thing next to you is your puppy?" He asked and Gracie just grinned and nodded.

"And that's my baby cousin." She said as she pointed to a little person that she drew between Adam and Kim.

"Oh, wow." He laughed. "You are aware that you don't currently have a baby coursin, right?"

"Uncle Adam, this is a family portrait of the future, duh." She said, rolling her eyes and he thought he was about to crack up. Having Gracie around was the only thing that was helping him through this.

"Of course it is."

He laughed to his insides and kept driving. After a letter of minutes they were parked in Med. "Ok Boo, grab your things, we're going to see Kim." That was all she needed to hear to get ready as fast as she could.

They walked through the halls of Med, Adam taking her little hand and giving her a preview of the whole situation.

"Now, when you see her you need to be gentle. She still has some bruises and scars, but the doctors told us that they are not hurting her anymore. She's still asleep, ok?"

"Ok."

"Great, let's go in." It wasn't time for visitors, but his CPD star gave him quite a few benefits. Gracie ran into the room and climbed up on the chair that was next to Kim's bed.

"Hi Aunt Kim! It's me, Gracie." Adam watched them and his heart broke. The look on Gracie's face was far too kind and loving, and she gently stroked her aunt's face as she talked to her, as if she was trying to brush the strands of hair away from her forehead. "I know that you are asleep, but mommy told me that even if you were asleep, she was sure that you could still hear me. Mommy and daddy are back home and I'm really happy, but some days I stay with uncle Adam because I'm having a little trouble getting used to my old house again and I missed staying with him." As she said that Adam could notice how her tone shifted and she was a little more embarrassed. "School's about to end and our new teacher is so boring and she's a little mean. We miss you." She stopped for a little and took a breath. "I miss you. You need to wake up soon so we can play and you can meet my mommy and daddy." Gracie leant in closer to Kim and lowered her voice in an attempt to keep Adam away from this. "Plus, uncle Adam is a mess. Don't tell him I told you this, but the other day he didn't watch the Hawks game and he put salt instead of sugar in his coffee. He didn't say anything, but I know it must have been awful."

Adam managed to hear that and let out a soft chuckle. Gracie was so bright, it was impossible to hide anything from her.

"I made a present for you, I'm going to leave it right here so that it's the first thing that you see when you wake up."

"Muffin, we need to get going or you'll be late for school. We can come again later." Adam interrupted.

"Ok." Grace agreed politely, but before climbing off the chair, she carefully leant forward to hug Kim and leave a soft kiss on her cheek. "I love you Aunt Kim. I know that you need to rest, but when you're ready please wake up." She gave her another kiss before walking over to her uncle and held his hand. "I'm ready Uncle Adam."

"You know? She loves you too and she's going to adore that picture that you made for her."

"She's going to wake up soon. I just know." She blurted out completely relaxed and walked alongside her uncle.

In the afternoon Adam was back at the hospital. He was still expected to go work at the district, but considering the situation they had all volunteered to cover for him allowing his shifts to be a bit more flexible and Voight didn't have any objection to that.

Today Kit was picking up Gracie from school and she was staying with her parents and hopefully staying the weekend with them, unless she wakes up crying and asking for Adam like it happened the first few days she spent back with her parents.

Kim's family was still in town, they had no intentions to leave any time soon and even Susan and George had stopped to visit quite a couple of times.

Right now he was in the room with her, Sylvie said she was going to come today but so far it was just the two of them.

"Gracie was ecstatic today, she really wanted to see you." He had adopted the habit of telling her about his day. He enjoyed that, he felt closer to her that way. "I miss you Belle. I need you to wake up and see those eyes sparkle. I need to tell you that I love you and watch how you smile shyly every single time." He held her hand and took it to his face to kiss her knuckles. "I love you so much, baby. So, so much."

"She loves you too, you know?"

Adam turned around when he heard the familiar voice and found Sylvie standing by the door.

"I just hope she feels the same way after she wakes up."

"Why wouldn't she?" She questioned him as she walked inside the room and left her things in a little couch that was pushed against the wall.

"All this is my fault."

"Shut up, Adam. Don't be stupid. We've talked about this already, and if anything, she did what she did out of pure love. Love for you and Grace." The blonde stood behind him and squeezed his shoulder.

"It's been exactly two weeks today."

"It feels like forever."

"Yes." He sighed. "We all want you to wake up, baby." He looked at his girlfriend again.

"Adam?" Sylvie sounded concerned.

"What?"

"She moved her hand." Adam looked back at Sylvie with a questioning look on his face. "Her fingers, she moved her fingers. Kim honey, we're here. You can hear us, right?"

Kim's fingers moved again. This time it was the other hand, gently squeezing Adam's hold on her. He looked to both their hands in disbelief, was she really moving or was his imagination playing a trick on him?

He looked back to her face and noticed movement under her eyelids.

"It's ok baby, take your time." He said softly, but it seemed as if she wasn't going to take anymore time. Her eyes kept moving until they slowly began to flutter open. "Oh my god, Kim. You're here." Both Sylvie and Adam had tears in their eyes and Kim looked completely disoriented. She kept blinking and looking around the room, analyzing the faces around her.

She felt everything turn around her, the sounds were distant and the images blurry. Little by little the far away noises became voices echoing in her head.

"Kim, sweety are you ok?" She recognized Sylvie's voice first, causing her to slowly turn her head and make eye contact with her finger friend. Both girls smile.

"I'm going to call the doctor." Adam didn't even give her time to answer when he stated what he was going to do and ran out of the room looking for doctor Walker.

"Everything hurts." Kim finally spoke softly. "I think I'm ok." Kim smiled. "Although I probably look like shit judging by your face." The way the brunette made jokes even with a raspy voice and an incredibly slow pace made Sylvie chuckle, her friend was back.

"You were in a pretty bad car accident, honey. So no, you don't look your best right now." The blonde mocked her friend. "Lucky you, your man doesn't care about that." Kim sighed with a smile.

"Where is he?" The glitter in the brunette's eyes was out of this world.

"He's looking for your doctor. I'm sure he'll be back in a second." Sylvie commented as she looked towards the hallway to see if Adam was around.

"Not him." Kim slightly scrunched up her nose. "Andrew."

"What?"

"Andrew, you know? Your cousin, where is he?" Kim missed her friend's concerned face and just kept talking. "By the way, good job with that one." She said pointing outside referencing Adam. "He's pretty hot."

"Um" Sylvie didn't know what to say or do. "Wait for me for a second." She stood up, she needed to tell Adam and the doctors what had just happened.

"I can't go anywhere. Go get Andrew, already." Kim sent her friend out of the room.