Playing House

Two Headed Monster

Tap...tap..tap...tap...tap.

It was incessant tapping and it was driving Adam Ruzek up the fucking wall, he looked over his shoulder and watched as his buddy Kevin Atwater rhythmically tapped the pen against the desk.

"Kev...do you mind" Adam pointed to the pen in his hand.

"What?" Kevin asked, "it helps me think" he offered with a shrug and continued tapping.

Adam blew out an exasperated breath as he pushed back from his desk, "I need some air" he grumbled as he grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and slipped it on.

Kevin rolled his eyes, "that's not all you need" he muttered under his breath.

Ever since Kim had ended things with Adam, the guy had been a miserable asshole and it was beginning to grate on the entire unit's nerves. Kevin seemed to have the patience of a saint, everyone else avoided him as if he had the plague. Even Kevin was reaching his breaking point, Adam was wound too tight and they were all waiting for the moment he snapped.

"What?" Adam retorted, his eyes angry. He lived in a constant state of anger..it didn't take much to push him over the edge and he'd come close to losing it on suspects a few times already.

Kevin held his hands up in defeat, "Nothing..man. Just forget it" he explained, the guy was a miserable son of a bitch but he wasn't about to kick a man when he was already down.

Adam shook his head in disgust as he descended the stairs and into the main lobby of the 21st district.

Walking through the lobby had become akin to walking through a field hidden with land mines. He was never sure when he'd run into Kim, he wished he could avoid it all together and stay in safe confines of the bullpen.

He was safe in the bullpen, she didn't have access and on the rare occasion she was given access he was warned and he could mentally prepare himself.

The lobby? It was Russian roulette, and she was the bullet.

She stood hunched over the desk scanning the latest arrest report that Platt had refused, citing horrible penmanship and numerous errors. She cursed herself for allowing Fredrickson to write up the report, his handwriting was shit and he always did the bare minimum and now here she was picking up the slack.

Paul Fredrickson was the latest rider of the merry go round of partners, no one seemed to fit with her, it seemed most of them expected a little bit more than partnership.

She only had herself to blame for that one, after all she had now hooked up with two police officers in the district. It seemed she was creating quite the reputation for herself, and somehow it seemed to be perfectly acceptable for the guys to hook up with whomever they wanted.

Yet, she was the 'ladder climber', the whore of the 21st.

She was repulsed by the way her fellow officers now viewed her, Erin and Platt had both warned her to slow down...to not rush into things with Sean.

She bucked their advice, and jumped head first from the frying pan to the fire.

She'd do anything to rid her head of Adam, she didn't care what it cost her she needed to be free of him.

Sean did that for her but he'd left two weeks ago for sunny Southern California and left her to deal with the fallout of it all by herself.

What a fallout it had been, for the most part her breakup with Adam had remained amicable..that all changed when her relationship with Sean came out in a packed courtroom.