Cabin Encounter
By Hexenadler
"Pitiful creature of darkness,
What kind of life have you known?
God give me courage to show you, you are not alone..."
- Charles Hart & Richard Stilgoe
Nick walked into the bedroom. Juliette was trying on a new dress. Upon seeing him, her face lit up in that special way Nick always loved.
"Hi!" She was grateful Nick was finally home. "I'm having a really hard time picking something out for dinner. Do you think you could…?"
Nick smiled. "Sure."
She spun around, showing Nick her back. "What do you think? Green or black?"
"Black's not your color."
Juliette made a face. "Yeah. You're right. It's not." She peeled off her dress as she headed for the wardrobe. "Green it is."
Nick's fist smashed Juliette across the face. She snarled, spitting blood in his face. "Come on, Grimm! You can do better than that!"
He did. In response, Juliette raked her fingernails across his cheek, leaving a bloody gouge in his flesh.
"Do you like that, Grimm?!" She shrieked. "I'm a wicked, nasty Hexenbiest, and you're going to punish me! You're going to hurt me because I'm an evil, evil BITCH!"
Nick and Juliette were resting together on the couch. Her head was resting on his chest. 'Back to the Future,' one of Juliette's favorite movies, was playing on the television.
"This is such a happy movie," she drowsily murmured. "I feel better every time I watch it. There should be more films like Back to the Future."
"You say the same thing about Rocky," Nick said, a soft smile playing across his mouth.
"I don't want any bad endings in my movies," she said, rubbing her head against Nick's shirt. "I want everything to work out. The heroes win, the villains lose."
"It's never that easy," Nick observed sadly.
"It should be."
The cabin's bedroom had become a warzone. Furniture was broken, window drapes shredded. Nick hurled Juliette against the mattress so hard, they could both hear the wooden framework splinter. Juliette responded by launching a desk light towards Nick's head. He ducked in time.
"Ride me, Grimm!" Juliette screamed. "Ride me until there's nothing left of me!"
He seized Juliette by the shoulders, glaring into her gruesome necrotic visage. An exposed muscle twitched into a sneer, taunting him. Exciting him.
"You're just a little wimp now," she cackled. "You're my little pet poodle, doing whatever I…"
He punched her, hard and fast, his knuckles bruising against her bared teeth, cutting her off in mid-sentence.
"How much do you want, Juliette? I can do this all night."
A pleased hiss escaped out of Juliette's woged face. "So can I. And I want it ALL."
"So, seriously. What do you think?"
Nick smiled and shook his head at the sight of the old, wrinkled basset hound slouching on Juliette's examination table. "He smells a little."
"Yeah, nothing a good bath can't fix."
"And he drools a lot."
A giggle escaped Juliette's lips. "You drool when you sleep."
"I do not!"
Nick didn't visit Juliette at work as much as he would have liked. All the more reason why he appreciated the opportunity in his crazy schedule to see what his girl got up to when she wasn't around the house.
"I just think we need a dog at home," Juliette said, looking over the basset affectionately. "Nobody's adopted him yet, and it would help make things feel a little more…normal."
Nick thought about it. "We'll see."
Nick and Juliette were slumped together in the bathtub, shower water spraying across their bare flesh, washing away the blood and sweat from their naked bodies.
"You almost knocked a tooth out," Juliette muttered, wiping the blood from her lips.
"You almost bit my fingers off," Nick reciprocated, pressing a hand to his ripped skin.
Juliette made a wry little snicker. "Well…I guess we both had a good time, then."
After they were thoroughly clean, they quietly applied bandages and stitches to each other under the frigid bathroom light, then retired to bed. They were both silent. It was one of the rare times when Juliette had no acidic comeback, no abrasive retort. She was satisfied, as was Nick.
"It's funny we've come this far," Nick murmured aloud.
"Nothing funny about it."
Nick lightly touched the bruise around his waist and winced. "No. I guess not."
Juliette's eyes roamed the bedroom. "You were right. It's nice to have these little getaways into the forest once in a while. Give ourselves the chance to blow off some steam. Good old-fashioned Grimm-Hexenbiest relationship therapy."
"If it works, it works."
"Come to think of it," Juliette said, with a now-familiar sneering ring to her voice, "this is where you fought your first Wesen, right? The Blutbad postman."
"Yeah."
"Didn't this cabin go up for sale? I'm surprised no one snatched it up. Scenic location, far away from the city…"
"It got pulled off the market," Nick said, his tone detached and indifferent. "Not sure why. Maybe people just felt bad vibes coming off this place."
Juliette stretched in bed, giving off a pleased sigh. "It's terrific to have a little zone to ourselves. I love cutting loose."
"We're still going to have to fix everything up before we go."
"We?" Juliette spoke the word with a sharp sting.
Nick sat upright in bed, looking down at Juliette's face. "That's right, Juliette. We. You and I. I'm okay with indulging some of your…impulses. That fancy dress, for example. But that's only because I could afford it."
Juliette smirked in the darkness.
"But I still have to draw the line somewhere," Nick added pointedly. "This game you and I play, where we hurt each other so we don't hurt others… it can only go so far. That's why I'm expecting you to pitch in when I ask you to."
Juliette petulantly folded her arms. "Fine. I'll…cover 20% of the damages."
"50%, Juliette. That's what we agreed. We both know you can afford it, with your new job. So don't bullshit me."
Her left eyelid twitched. "35%."
Nick stared at her.
"All right!" Juliette snarled. "50%. God, sometimes you just suffocate me. One of these days I'm going to run off with Renard so I can watch you fall apart."
Nick leaned back against his pillow. "That's the sixth time in a row you've threatened to use Renard to get to me. I've been counting."
"Awww, my little Grimm knows math. That's so cute."
"I've also counted the times you've actually slept with Renard."
"Good for you."
"You've slept with him exactly once, Juliette. Back when you were going crazy. Before you…'stabilized.' You haven't done it since. Care to tell me why?"
Juliette twisted away from Nick, keeping her face hidden from him. But her silence told Nick everything he needed to know.
"Goodnight," he said.
"Whatever."
Juliette woke up two hours later, and took a quick bathroom break. When she came back, she saw the screen on her smartphone was lit up. It glowed in the dark like a rectangular beacon of light. She reached out and glanced at the message.
JULIETTE. IT'S DAD. WHERE R U?
She looked in Nick's direction. He was still asleep. Quietly, she stepped out of bed and entered the kitchen. Standing in front of the kitchen sink, she texted her reply.
I'M AT THE CABIN.
WHAT CABIN?
THE CABIN FROM NICK'S FIRST WESEN CASE. I TOLD YOU ABOUT IT.
ARE U OK?
Juliette couldn't resist a characteristic Hexenbiest smirk as she typed her answer.
I'M GREAT. NICK'S JUST BEEN SHOWING ME A GOOD TIME.
There was a long pause before her father answered. It made her uncomfortable.
DID HE HURT YOU?
Juliette typed out the words as quickly as she could.
DAD, WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS ALREADY.
NICK AND I HAVE FUN.
IT'S HOW WE WORK THINKS OUT.
I'M FINE. NICK'S FINE. DON'T WORRY.
WORRYING IS WHAT DADS DO.
I KNOW YOU'RE A HEXENBIEST.
BUT YOU'RE STILL MY LITTLE GIRL.
Oh, brother, Juliette thought, rolling her eyes. She typed out a venomous reply. She was about to hit the send button, when she stopped herself. Biting down on her lower lip, she erased the message and began to type a new one.
I KNOW.
I LOVE Y
Nick bolted out of the bedroom faster than Juliette could register, and tackled her to the floor. Less than a millisecond later, a hole exploded through the kitchen window's glass.
"Sniper!" Nick shouted. "Stay down!"
Juliette barely had enough time to catch her breath after it had been slammed out of her. "Nick, what the hell…?"
A second hole burst in the window's glass. She felt a few shards drop into her hair. Then everything was quiet. Nick kept Juliette and himself pressed down on the kitchen's linoleum floor. He seemed to be waiting for a third bullet to enter the cabin. But none came.
"I saw him outside," Nick whispered. "Just past the first row of trees. He moves fast. Faster than any human could. He might be Wesen; I'm not sure."
"Then let me up," Juliette hissed. "I can kill the bastard in no time. I'll make his head pop like a…"
"You'd have to get a lock on him first. I told you, he moves fast."
"Fine. So what do you want to do?"
Nick looked towards the back door. "Just stay in the kitchen and don't go near the windows. I'll go outside, see if I can work my way behind him."
"That's it?" Juliette snarled. "That's your plan?"
"If you have a better one, I'm all ears."
Juliette scowled, frustrated she couldn't think of an answer. Nick crept out of the kitchen, slipping quietly into the back yard. Juliette was a little taken aback at how good Nick was getting at being stealthy. She would never admit it aloud, but there were times when she was a little afraid of Nick. She tried to convince herself she had him under her thumb, but…
A third bullet exploded through one of the living room's windows. Juliette instinctively ducked, and cursed herself for her show of weakness. If only she knew where the son of a bitch was hiding! But Nick was right. She couldn't make the little prick's head explode until she got a lock on him.
As she pressed her body against the kitchen floor, she began to wonder how the old Juliette would have responded under the same circumstances. She'd probably run to the bathroom and throw up, she thought with a dry little scoff. That dainty little princess would just let Nick solve all of her big, scary problems.
But somewhere, deep within her, the soft, gentle voice of the old Juliette spoke. Isn't that what you're doing now? All that's different between you and me is the fact you're a horrible, cruel woman who only hurts everyone around her, who can never love, and never be loved back, except for Nick, and that's why you can't bring yourself to kill him, or leave him, because the truth of the matter is…
"Shut up!" She screamed aloud in the darkness. Almost immediately, the glass of the kitchen window burst again as a fourth bullet was fired. She lowered her head to the floor and berated herself for her own stupidity.
Suddenly, she heard a scuffle from outside. The sound of breaking twigs was accompanied by a string of profanities from a shrill, reedy voice she didn't recognize. There was a loud, heavy noise, as if something hard was being struck by something harder, and the profanities ended.
A minute passed before Nick entered the cabin through the front door, dragging an unconscious young man by the scruff of his neck. He dropped him in the center of the living room like a sack of potatoes.
Juliette walked cautiously into the den. Nick had chained the man up in handcuffs. His head was shaven completely bald, and he wore black clothes, obviously meant to keep him camouflaged in the night. Nick tossed a balaclava onto the sofa, along with a long, sleek sniper rifle. It looked impressive.
Juliette stood over the man. "You recognize this asshole?"
"I think I've seen his face somewhere before," Nick said, panting. He was still catching his breath from the struggle. "But I can't place him yet."
"What about the gun?"
"It's a SVLK-14S. Powerful, and expensive."
"So you think he's some kind of rich kid who borrowed his daddy's pea-shooter for the weekend?" Juliette asked with a contemptuous sneer.
"That's definitely one possibility." Nick knelt down beside the man. "If he really knew how to use that thing, we would have been in trouble."
"You would have been in trouble," she said.
Nick met Juliette's cold gaze. "No, Juliette. We would have been in trouble."
The man moaned and stirred. Nick made sure the handcuffs were secure.
"So," Nick said, his voice eerily serene. "You want to tell me why you tried to put a bullet in my fiancee's head?"
The man opened his eyes. Upon seeing Nick's face, he snarled in a way that actually managed to repulse Juliette. "Fiancee? Fuck, don't call her that. It makes me want to puke."
"Why?"
The man's mouth clamped shut. A sneaking suspicion was creeping up on Juliette. She had to know for sure. So she woged.
"Juliette!" Nick shouted, but her attention was focused on the man. He didn't scream or faint at the sight of Juliette's cadaverous features. He merely glared at them with a raw, seething hatred.
"Nick," she said through her rotting teeth, "he's a Grimm."
He was still angry at Juliette for woging out of the blue, but Nick's eyebrow arched all the same. He yanked the man upright and leaned him against the side of the couch.
"A Grimm?" Nick repeated quietly. "Well, that's interesting. I haven't seen a lot of other Grimms…at least around Portland. I was starting to wonder if we're endangered somehow. Obviously we're not."
The man looked away from Juliette, lips curling in revulsion. "Fucking hell! How can you sleep in the same bed with that thing?! Are you into necrophilia or what?!"
"I'm the one asking the questions," Nick said. "Once again: Why were you trying to kill my fiancée?"
"Because she's a Hexenbiest, you fucking wimp," the man sneered. "That's what Grimms are supposed to do. Kill Hexenbiests. But here you are, fucking marrying one."
"You like saying 'fuck' a lot, don't you?"
"Fuck you!"
Juliette woged back into her human disguise. "Why did you call Nick a wimp?" She asked. Her tone was more inquisitive than hostile.
"Because that's what he is," the man spat. "He's a disgrace to every last Grimm on the planet. The age of effeminate little ass-wipes like you is coming to an end, Burkhardt! The time of men…real men…is about to dawn again!"
"And what's your criteria for a real man?" Nick asked, seeming calm and indifferent.
"Men who don't let manipulative cunts like this one walk all over them, for starters," the man spewed at Juliette.
Juliette's left eyelid twitched again. It was becoming a familiar little tic. "Let me pop his head, Nick. I promise it'll be real wet and juicy. Like a watermelon exploding."
"Not yet." Nick pulled up a chair and sat down, as if he was about to have a pleasant, amiable conversation. "I think I recognize you now," he said to the man. "You're Adam DiCaprio. You run the 'Sons of Mars' website."
"Sons of Mars?" Juliette hadn't heard the title before.
Nick turned around to look at Juliette. "A more militant version of 'Men Going Their Own Way.' Basically they believe political correctness has been a worse scourge on the human race than the black plague, and that women should be confined to kitchens and secretarial duties for the rest of their lives."
"Not just women," DiCaprio cut in with a sneer. "Gutless eunuchs will also be included in the great purge."
"Eunuchs like me?" Nick said casually.
DiCaprio turned on Nick with a toxic rage. "You call yourself a Grimm?!" He shrieked in his face. "You're bringing shame and ignominy on your whole race, cozying up with this whore!"
"She wasn't always a Hexenbiest."
"That's fucking irrelevant! She's a Hexenbiest now! Has she done anything to disprove all Hexenbiests aren't a bunch of treacherous, lying sluts?!"
Nick observed Juliette. He was quiet for a long time.
"Yes, she's treacherous," Nick said. "Yes, she lies. But she's not a slut. She keeps threatening to be one, but she never delivers on her threats."
Juliette looked down at the floor. She hated it when Nick saw through her.
DiCaprio snickered. "So why the fuck are you staying with her? Why the fuck is she staying with you?"
"You want a good answer to that?" Nick said, cool as ice. "I don't have one. I love her. That's all there is to it."
"You love her?" DiCaprio let out a shrill cackle. His handcuffs rattled as his body shook with cruel laughter. "That's good. That's real good."
Nick smiled sadly. "That's what Juliette said when I told her the same thing."
"Yeah." Juliette murmured, her eyes still locked on the floor. "I did."
He glanced at Juliette. "Do you still feel the same way?"
Juliette looked at Nick. Then she looked at DiCaprio. The knowing, hateful smirk on his face resembled the one she frequently gave Nick, and she felt nauseous.
"…I don't know," she finally whispered.
DiCaprio shook his head. "Fucking hell, the pair of you are unbelievable. Somebody's got to put you both down before you do any more damage."
"It sounds like we're making quite a sensation," Nick said.
"Sensation?" DiCaprio chuckled like a hyena. "Yeah, I guess you could call it that. Everyone's been hearing about the Grimm and the Hexenbiest living together in Portland. There's a lot of Wesen scared of you two. But me? I know who really wears the pants in this relationship, and it's sure as fuck isn't you, Burkhardt."
"Why? Because I haven't chopped off her head?" Nick suddenly sounded very tired. "I had to make a choice between Juliette and another Hexenbiest called Adalind. So I chose, and the world keeps punishing me for it. As if I was somehow supposed to pick the woman who tricked me into sleeping with her, and now fate's giving me a hard time because I said no. Do you really think I haven't heard all of this bullshit before, DiCaprio? You can get in line with all the other assholes in Portland, because I'm happy to prove how much of a man I am by killing you one by one."
DiCaprio's evil smile didn't leave his face. "You can't kill me. You're a cop, and I'm unarmed. Even if you don't have a scrotum, Burkhardt, you still have enough of a brain to know you can't just randomly murder people in custody."
"The hell he can't," Juliette snarled. "Nick's killed more Wesen than – "
"Juliette, relax," Nick said, cutting her off. "He's not going anywhere."
"'He's not going anywhere!'" DiCaprio tauntingly mimicked. "It's way too late to start being a badass, Nick. You've missed your chance. Fuck, you're such a weakling. If only your mommy could see you now. I bet she'd – "
Nick was on DiCaprio faster than Juliette had ever seen him move before. He shoved his thumbs right into DiCaprio's eyes, and pushed down hard. DiCaprio began to scream, and as Nick dug the raw jelly out from his sockets, his screams became higher-pitched, resembling the squeals of a pig. Blood gushed down his cheeks like miniature red-tinted waterfalls.
Nick flung DiCaprio to the ground after he had scooped out every last piece of soft matter. DiCaprio continued to shriek, wiggling about the floor like a worm.
"You fucking psycho!" He managed to blurt out between howls of pain.
Nick stood up, wearily staring at his gore-drenched hands. "One minute, you're calling me a weakling. The next, I'm a psycho. There's just no way to win with your type, is there?"
Juliette had stood to one side throughout the entire altercation, observing with an expression somewhere between shock and delight.
Nick walked towards the front door. He looked exhausted. "He's all yours," he whispered to Juliette as he passed her.
Juliette looked at DiCaprio, who was still trying to feel his way around, perhaps hoping his bound hands would find his trusty rifle.
"Go ahead, bitch," DiCaprio gurgled even as he crawled about the floor. "Finish me off. It's better than getting turned into a fucking pussy."
Juliette rolled her head, and felt her neck give off a few pleasing pops. "Oh, trust me. You're going to wish you were Nick five seconds from now."
Nick was outside on the porch, staring into the night sky. There were sounds coming from inside the cabin; sounds that even made Nick feel queasy.
There would be serious repercussions for DiCaprio's destruction, he knew that. But considering some of the other things he had allowed himself to do throughout his career, he had become indifferent. Letting someone as vile as DiCaprio continue to live presented repercussions as well. When he first discovered the existence of Wesen, he was more cop than Grimm. Now he was more Grimm than cop. He could only hope he wouldn't take it too far, to the point where innocent people were being murdered in the crossfire, and he would simply shrug off their murders like any other monster. But living under the same roof as another Hexenbiest was a terrible challenge. They were dark creatures, and even though he would occasionally see flashes of the old Juliette peek through, the Hexenbiest she'd become was always dominant.
The sounds inside the cabin grew louder instead of quieter. Nick walked off the porch, towards the forest. He didn't want to be desensitized to those kind of noises. He watched the silent stars high above the Earth, and felt a small measure of peace.
After what seemed like eons, Juliette was finally finished. She appeared in the doorway without a single drop of blood on her clothes, and strolled over to Nick.
"That was fun," she said, sounding satisfied. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Nick and Juliette looked up at the stars together.
"Do you really miss the old me that much?" Juliette asked, a rare hesitancy in her voice.
"Of course I do," Nick responded. "But I couldn't let you go. That's the problem with love; real love. Even when you were ready to murder a pregnant woman, I got out of your way. The truth is, you turned into a monster because of me. I owed you."
He heard Juliette scoff. "Bullshit. You knew I wasn't going to kill her."
"Did I?"
They were silent for a long time, the calm only pierced by the occasional hoot of an owl.
"At first I saw you as just another tool in my life," Juliette said, slowly and distantly. "Something I could use or disuse whenever I felt like it. It's nothing personal, Nick. It's just…the way I think now."
Nick sighed. "Can't fault the viper for biting the farmer."
"What?"
"It's just an old Aesop's Fable," he said, a little forlornly. "Go on."
Juliette rubbed her arm. She was more nervous than sincere. "But the longer we stayed together, the more complicated things became. I can use obsession to my advantage. I can grind any man under my heel with it. After I transformed into a Hexenbiest, I stopped believing in love. I thought you were just obsessed, like the rest of them. But now…"
Juliette trailed off. Nick chose not to say anything.
"I don't know what the hell to do with love anymore, Nick," she almost shouted, raw frustration bubbling beneath her voice. "Sometimes I think I feel it again, and then it just…slips away. And here we are, getting married in a few months. It's surreal. It's insane."
Nick nodded.
Juliette turned her eyes away from the heavens to Nick's face. "What do you think's going to become of us?"
"I don't know," Nick said, gazing at the Big Dipper. "All we can do is take it one day at a time. Just like any other couple."
Juliette seemed on the brink of a coy reply, but decided against it. She suddenly seemed as tired as Nick. She walked back to the cottage.
"Come on," she said, a little softer than Nick was used to hearing. "There's a body we have to bury."
"You mean there's still a body left?" Nick said, a macabre smile tugging at his lips.
"Technically," Juliette answered, with the same smile.