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It felt like the night had been dragging on. You’d been having fun, sure, but you felt drained from all the energy spent dancing, talking, and drinking. It was also the end of the day, or more like, the early hours of a brand new day. The festivities celebrating Stella’s promotion were still going on, but you could feel the exhaustion wearing down in your bones. It took you a few seconds to even gather enough vigor to rise from the bar stool and begin making your goodbye rounds with everyone.
You caught Kevin’s eye as you began walking towards the door and so you made a quick detour to where he was sitting. The two of you had always been friendly with each other, whether it be during the times you interacted at work or whenever you ran into each other here at Molly’s. You saw him when he had first come in with Ruzek and Burgess, but now he was sitting all alone with Burgess gone for the night and Ruzek grabbing another drink at the bar.
“Heading home already?” He asked as he saw your crossbody around your frame.
“It’s one a.m.” you defended.
Kevin chuckled, “Didn’t take you for a girl scout, Dubois.”
He accepted the playful swat you gave him on his shoulder while feigning hurt.
“You called an Uber?”
“Nah, I only live down the street.”
Kevin frowned, “Sooo, you’re gonna walk?”
You shrugged, “Yeah, my feet ain’t broke. I always walk when I know I’m gonna be drinking here. No use in driving my car for like two blocks.”
Kevin shook his head in a playful admonishment, “You a first responder, you s’posed to know better.”
He downed the rest of his drink and stood up from his seat. You looked at his empty beer bottle and gave him a pointed glare. It, for sure, wasn’t the first drink he had had tonight. He caught the glare and put his hands up in defense, “What?”
“You a first responder, you s’posed to know better,” you threw back at him, “I know you don’t think I’m about to get in your car when you’ve probably had just as much tonight as I’ve had. And don’t even bring up our difference in size before I make Ruz come over here with a Breathalyzer.”
“Okay, okay, Miss Smarty. And what if I was about to offer to walk you home? Then what, huh?”
You couldn’t help but look away with a smirk at his retort, not realizing that’s where he was going with this. His close proximity to you didn’t help matters as your face warmed up.
“Ah ha! That’s what I thought.” He grabbed his jacket and put it on, “Let me go holla at Ruzek and I’ll take you home.”
You weren’t even given the chance to decline the kind offer before he was off saying goodnight to his partner. You gave a final wave and congratulatory air kiss to Stella before heading to wait towards the door. You heard Sylvie yell a “text me when you get home!” and you smiled and saluted in acknowledgement of the request.
A second later, Kevin had joined you and reached over your head to hold the door open for you to exit. He made a show of silently gesturing “after you” with his hands before following you out into the Chicago night air. He draped one of his shoulders around you and your cheeks warmed as you realized this was the first time that the two of you had touched in this manner. A shake of the hand here, a tap on the shoulder there, but never had either of you been in as close of an embrace as this. Maybe his meager drunkenness had caused him to be a little touchier than normal. And maybe your stupor had given you the comfort to lean into his arm. Either way, you both comfortably walked the path to your place with his arm still around you.
“Seriously, though, you shouldn’t be walking home by yourself. Especially while drunk.”
“Well, to be fair, I’m not always drunk. Sometimes, I’m working shifts and obviously I’m not drinking on the job.”
Even though you were part-owner and didn’t necessarily need the extra cash, sometimes you just enjoyed serving drinks around the establishment and having fun with everyone.
“Still, D.” He wrapped his arm tighter around you as he belabored his point. Your heart skipped at the motion to the point where you shivered a little at his touch. Taking the gesture as if you were cold, he wordlessly walked behind you and leaned both of his arms around you in the attempts of gathering warmth for you.
You grinned at the gesture and allowed your head to lean into his embrace as you two continued walking. The smell of his cologne doused your senses and you wondered if there was a better sensation than what you were currently experiencing.
“Thank you,” you finally said after several minutes of silence.
“For what?”
“Walking me home,” there was more you wanted to say, but the alcohol hadn’t emboldened you that much.
“Always.”
Your steps began to slow as you were a few houses down from your townhome.
“And for the record, if you ever see me at Molly’s, you come find me so you’re not out here by yourself.”
“I walk into burning buildings for a living,” and even though he couldn’t see it, you playfully rolled your eyes. Giggles erupted from your mouth as he launched an impromptu tickle attack on you. It took several moments for your laughter to die down as he kept grabbing you and running his fingers lightly over you. He wouldn’t stop through your bouts of sniggers as he continuously asked, “You gon’ listen to me? Can’t hear you, you gon’ listen to me?”
It wasn’t until you finally conceded that he finally stopped, “Okay, okay! I promise! I promise!”
You pointed to your brownstone and he playfully lifted you up the stairs to your door. You leaned your back up against the door as you two stood face to face.
Your small, bashful smile had returned as you looked him in the eye.
“Thanks again for walking me home.”
You weren’t sure who reached for who first, but you were locked in another embrace as you heard him say “Always” up against your ear.
This should’ve been the part where the two of you separated but you hadn’t moved your arms back and he hadn’t made the move to do so either. If you were listening closely enough, you might even heard the sigh of contentment that emanated from him. His hand came up to your hair and ran a couple of fingers through your curly locks as he tenderly held your head.
His face moved back some until you were eye to eye, or rather eye to chin. He was looking down at you, something of enchantment glimmering in his eye.
“Damn, I don’t wanna leave.”
“I don’t want you to, either.”
The words had come out before you even meant them to and it took several moments for it to register that you had said them. Still, you wouldn’t have taken it back. You might’ve even opened the door and let him in.
The vibrating ring of his phone had interrupted anything further from taking place.
Halstead’s name popped up and you knew that meant that the team had probably caught a case.
When you sighed, it was if you were taking your first breath since his embrace. As if you were tucked under the seas and finally coming up for air. As if the frizz of the air that encapsulated you both had suddenly crashed down and now you were back to reality.
“Duty calls,” you had said.
He held his phone and internally searched for which words to deliver out of all the words that were thrashing to spill out.
You spoke for the both of them, “I’ll be seeing you.”
He nodded, agreeing with the interlude, with the non-finality of your words.
“I’ll be seeing you.”