I'm sorry that I figuratively disappeared into thin air. However, I had to decide what was more important - real life or writing. And you all know what the decision was, but now that things have calmed down a bit, I'm going to continue with Hank, Kim and

Chapter 9

For the rest of the day, Kim had avoided her bedroom and the book.

Well, at least that was what she had decided to do - to not look at it again. No way. She didn't want to see the way Hank Voight looked at her. Looked at her like she was the most important person in his life. So full of love. No, she didn't want to think about why he looked at her that way. And yet, Kim's mind kept wandering to the photo and its possible meaning.

Could she and her boss have been lovers? No. There was no way that could be. She would never get involved with him! Or would she?

Well, that was one of the many questions Kim couldn't answer for herself. Everything that had happened in her life in the last weeks and months was completely unknown to her - had been forgotten. She had simply forgotten. So, somehow there was a possibility that what could be seen on the photo was true. I mean, that there had been something between her and Hank Voight. At some point in the past. A past she had forgotten. Unfortunately.

Suddenly Kim found herself in her bedroom. Unknowingly, her path had led her here.

Kim sat down on her bed and reached for the book on her nightstand. She took out the photo and looked at it in a thoughtful way.

Kim couldn't explain how it got here. Well, actually she could. She had to have put it in the book. Still, the question was, why? The picture showed Hank Voight and her in a very familiar embrace. He had his arms around Kim from behind and they were both looking at each other - smiling, as though as if in love. Oh, she shouldn't be looking at her sergeant like that! No way.

Kim couldn't remember any of it. Yet she had to. She had to remember everything again. For sure, she would. Absolutely. She promised herself that she would.

And if need be, she would just ask - her team or Hank directly.

Over the next few days, they all dropped by Kim's house - Adam and Hailey, Kevin, Jay, Sergeant Platt, and Al, too. Except not HIM. The man on the photo. Hank Voight.

Right now, it was him that Kim felt she had to ask all those things. Questions she didn't have the answers to herself.

Since she was still on sick leave for at least another week, she couldn't just drive down to the precinct and ask him. Or perhaps she could.

Kim's gaze slid again to the photo that had been in the book until a few days ago. She had now taken it out of the book and looked at it again and again. Looking for clues. In the photo and in her apartment. But apart from her bed linen, which smelled of a man's aftershave, there was no indication that a man had been in her apartment. I mean, that HE had been in her apartment. No, the thought that Hank Voight had slept in her bed was too far-fetched.

Kim had just thought that she should go to HIM and ask him directly about the photo, when there was a knock at her door.

Moving quickly, hoping that it was finally Hank Voight visiting her, Kim literally yanked open her door. But it was only Alvin. Again.

Somehow Kim had the impression that Al visited her most often.

And that was true.

Al, who was the only one who knew about the thing between Hank and her, just wanted to make sure she was okay. She was the woman who meant the world to his best friend after all.

His best friend, who had been holed up at home for days, with a bottle of whiskey and was suffering in silence. Yearning for his girlfriend. But Hank Voight was too proud to admit that it was a mistake to cut Kim out of his life. However, Hank Voight was convinced that it was better that way. In fact, that the gunshot was his fault. He was convinced that something even worse would happen to her one day if the two of them stayed together. Total bullshit in Al's eyes. But Hank Voight was a stubborn man.

And so Al had no choice other than to stand by as a silent observer in this drama.

"Oh it's you."

Kim had hoped that it would finally be Hank. That she would finally get an answer. Would finally get the truth about the photo.

But her hope was in vain.

Well, maybe she should just go to him. Show him the photo and confront him. Okay, maybe that was a good idea. Or a damn bad one.