Second Chances

Epilogue

6 years later

Kim's POV

I sat on a park bench enjoying the sunshine and the nearby laughter of children. Hailey was next to me, and I knew somewhere not too far away our husbands were off finding some ice cream to surprise our kids with. I smiled, watching them play in the grass. Maddie was enjoying bossing around the Halstead twins, Aaron and Garrett, with their little sister, Emily, attached to her hip.

At first glance, Maddie looked like a mini version of me, but if you stopped to look closely, you would pick up on hints of Adam in her, too. By looking at Aaron and Garrett, you would never have guessed that Hailey and Jay weren't their biological parents. They had Hailey's blond hair and blue eyes and Jay's freckles. Emily was their biological daughter, and she was like a mini Hailey, except with Jay's eyes. Maddie absolutely loved having Emily around. She was basically a little sister to her. I had never been able to bring myself to have another baby, and Adam respected that, but every time I saw Mads and Emily together it always made me consider.

After Adam had gotten shot, the rest of my pregnancy had thankfully been uneventful, with no close calls for either of us. She was born healthy, and we named her Madeline Angelica, Mads or Maddie for short. I just about cried when Adam suggested the middle name. He said he wanted her to always know that her older sibling would be watching over her, and I thought that was the sweetest idea. Who am I kidding, we both cried over that.

Shortly after she was born, Adam proposed, and I immediately said yes. His response, in classic Adam fashion, was something along the lines of "third time's the charm." It still makes me smile thinking about it. Maddie was an adorable flower girl at our wedding, even though she was still really young and Hailey had to help her out a lot. A few months after our wedding, I was promoted to detective, and then Adam was, too, within the next year.

Somewhere around there, Hailey and Jay got engaged. After being married for about a year and a half, they met the twins while working a particularly dark case that had ended with both of the boys' parents dead. They quickly decided to foster, and as soon as DCFS would let them, they adopted the boys.

Shortly before their wedding, Vanessa returned from her deep cover assignment. (I believe one of the first things she told Hailey upon her return was, 'I wasn't about to let some dumb criminals make me miss your wedding!') Almost two years ago, Vanessa and Kevin officially started dating, and Adam currently has a pool going for how long we all think it will take them to get engaged.

About a year and a half ago, Voight retired and shocked everyone by moving away from Chicago to go live near his grandson. He left the unit to Hailey, who had been promoted to sergeant and had just returned from her maternity leave with Emily. Unfortunately, per HR, Hailey being in charge meant that Jay had to transfer out. He ended up being promoted to sergeant a few months later and now has his own unit in Area Central. But of course he still makes every excuse to stop by the 21st.

When Trudy retired shortly after Voight, she somehow pulled some strings and made me her replacement. I miss being in the field, but being a desk sergeant is a lot safer and I get to spend more time with Maddie, so overall it's been a great change. And I still get to see Adam every day.

Kev, Adam, and Vanessa are now the only detectives in Intelligence, but they have a couple of young officers there that remind us all of us when we were first starting out. We try not to mess with them too bad, but we still have our fun.

I watch as Adam comes over and scoops up Maddie, who squeals in delight. He then surprises her with ice cream which makes her break out in a giant grin and wrap her little arms around his neck. He catches me watching and smiles. I smile back, and he walks over, kissing the top of my head while simultaneously putting down our somehow already messy five year old. She quickly runs over and helps Emily with her own ice cream, although not very successfully because both of them end up a mess. I laugh at the sight. Hailey gets up to go try and clean them up while also helping Jay with the twins.

Adam sits down next to me. He wraps his arm around me, and I lean my head against him, just like we've done millions of times by now.

Even after all these years, close to him is still my favorite place to be.

Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed :)