Nick ran full force into the werewolf before he'd closed the door. He knew this was the man, the thing that had kidnapped the Robin Howell. Something inside of him just knew it, but before Hank could show up or see where he'd gone for that matter, the air was knocked out of him and he was pinned to the ground by another werewolf. Getting his surroundings, he saw that not only was this one smaller, but she had yellow eyes. She morphed back, but her eyes didn't change their yellow glow.
"Thanks Maria," the man said. "You can get off of him now."
She got off of Nick without protest, her yellow eyes slowly fading to a bright emerald green.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
Before Nick could reply, Hank came in. The officer looked around before asking, "What happened?"
Nick had nothing to say. The girl however, who looked about fourteen years old, had a statement.
"He just barged in here and tackled my uncle to the ground!" she said, a thick New York accent audible in her voice.
Hank then turned to Nick, looking at him like he was a talking carrot. It took a moment or two for Nick to realize a few things. One, he was still on the floor. Two, Hank was waiting for an explanation. And, three, Nick did not have one for his actions. He scrambled up, rubbing his neck awkwardly as he did.
"Look, I'm sure this was just a big misunderstanding," the larger werewolf said, holding the smaller one's shoulders protectively.
"Yea," Hank said, looking from the werewolf to Nick skeptically. "Look, I'm sorry for the trouble you two. Nick, can I talk to you for a sec?"
Nick followed the older detective out of the house, the girl watching him with a questioning stare all the while.
"What was that about?" Hank asked.
"I thing that's our guy," Nick whispered, referring to the larger werewolf.
"Based on what Nick?"
What was he supposed to say? That the guy was a werewolf?
"I just, have a gut feeling," Nick said, grasping at anything he could to get Hank to believe him.
"Yea sure. Well, next time, tell your gut we need a warrant and some evidence before we tackle grown men into a staircase in front of little girls Nick! He could press charges! That girl may be scarred for life," Hank said.
Though, Nick highly doubted that she was the least bit scared of him. "I'm sorry," he said anyway, "I guess I just… acted on impulse."
Hank looked around, looking like he was thinking for a moment before he finally said, "I'll keep it to myself. Just don't let it happen again okay?"
"I won't," Nick lied, grateful for the older detective's friendship.
"What was he?" Maria asked once the officers had left the house, door shut gratefully behind them.
"I'll tell you when you're older, okay?" Monroe said sadly.
Maria sighted, looking out the window after the two men as they walked away. 'You just wouldn't understand', 'You'll learn when you're older', she'd been hearing that from her parents her entire life. And now, the same song and dance was coming from her uncle.
"Why when I'm older?" she pushed, already knowing it would get her nowhere.
Monroe ignored the question. He had been asked the same questions at least once a week for the past month since his sister had died, leaving her only daughter to him. He knew what Maria wanted to know, he knew why. It was a reasonable thing to ask, but he couldn't tell her. His mother, his father, his brother, even his sister in her will had made him promise not to tell her. and it broke his heart to know that he could never put Maria's mind to rest. She never got angry, but that made it even worse. She seemed to except that she wasn't a normal Blutbad, but she just wanted to know what she was.
"I'm gonna go for a walk, okay?" she said, heading to the door as he walked away.
"Yea, go ahead," Monroe said "You know the rule."
"I know, back before the street lights," Maria said with a weak forced smile as she walked out the door. I'm not even lying, she thought as she pulled the wallet she had taken out of the officer's pocket, I know the rule, I'm just not planning on following it tonight.
The address, being on Nick's ID, was easy to find. It was late, and the sun began to go down. But Maria had the ability to get home before the streetlights if she hurried. She walked up the path to the house before her and knocked on the door. A beautiful red head answered the door with a sweet yet confused smile on her face.
"Well, hello there," she said to Maria. "Can I help you?"
"Uh, yea, I was walking when I found this," she said holding up Nick's wallet. "Is there a Nicholas Burkhardt here?"
Nick was inside the kitchen when he heard the voice. The same New York accent from the werewolf house. He got up and went to the door, surprised to see the fourteen year old girl with a familiar black wallet in her hand.
"Oh, yea," Juliet said, turning around to see Nick standing there with a look of both horror and curiosity on his face. "Hey Nick you have a visitor, and I need to check on dinner," she said, leaving.
Nick walked over to the smug looking little girl on her face.
"Ello the'," she said, her accent thicker this time than the others. She held out the wallet saying "I believe this is yours!"
"Thanks," Nick said, taking the wallet. "So, what do you want?"
"I just want to know what you are. I'll leave then, I promise! I just have to know!" she said, her eyes pleading Nick to give her an answer.
"Why do you want to know what I am?" Nick asked.
"Please, that's all I want to know. My family's never told me when I asked them what you Wesen are. My dad was one too, and I'm half one, but I don't know what I am!" she said, a sorrow look on her face.
"Tell you what, you tell me where that little girl is and I'll tell you what I am," Nick said.
"I don't know exactly where she is, but I could lead you there by tracking the scent!" she said, jumping at the chance.
Nick thought it over. It was a tempting offer, though he still had some doubts that this girl hadn't been the one to kidnap Robin in the first place. And it was a bit odd.
"Fine. Let's go," Nick said, about to tell Juliet that he was leaving.
"Wait! We can't go now! My uncle is going to get worried if I don't get home soon," she said, debating on what to do.
"Well I could stop bye later at night," Nick said, feeling really disgusting as an adult for saying this to a fourteen year old girl.
She bit her lip and thought a bit before nodding and saying "Okay, I'll be outside on the right side of the house," before scampering off down the path and down the road to the woods.
Maria stood by her window, pulling on her shoes. Monroe was awake, just in the living room, so she had to be careful and quiet. She opened the window and crawled through, her feet landing on the cold ground between two bushes. It was late, about nine. She made her way to the side of the house and peeked around the corner to see the man with yellow eyes, Nick Burkhardt, poking around. When she made a move to sneak toward him however, her uncle came crashing through the window and barreling into the man, woged out and all.
"You shouldn't have come back!" he growled in the man's face. Monroe couldn't keep up the act, fading into laughter and standing up. He held out a hand to help the man stand up and said "Sorry man, but you really shouldn't have come back here," before turning to Maria and stress-laughing to her "You, are so grounded!" When Nick got up, Monroe turned to him saying, "And you are leaving. Now."
Nick was persistent. "Look, I get that you don't have her. But if you can help me find this little girl, please. Help me find her."
Her uncle looked from Maria to Nick, and back to Maria. As if he was debating. He sighed heavily before saying "Fine. I'll help," Monroe then turned to Maria and said "But you're going back to bed!" with a stern finger pointed at her.
Knowing that school was tomorrow and she wasn't going to win this fight, Maria went inside. Leaving her chances of finding out what she was behind her with her uncle.
It was awkward. The yellow beetle was small, and the air thick with discomfort as they drove throught the woods.
"Look man," the werewolf, Monroe, said, "I get that you just wanted to find this little girl, but I really don't want Maria to find out she's half Grimm. Thanks for not chopping off her head by the way."
"Why would I do that? And what exactly is a Grimm?" Nick questioned.
"You know, a Grimm? Guess you're new to the whole Wesen thing huh?"
"Yea, sort of like three days or so," Nick said, looking down at the floor. "And why can't she know she's half Grimm and half werewolf?"
"Ah- Blutbad. Not werewolf. Very big difference there! And she can't know because of two things. Her parents were killed for it. So, my parents made me promise not to tell her to protect her," Monroe explained, obviously a little uncomfortable talking about it.
"Wow, really?" Nick asked in disbelief, feeling sympathy for the girl. What shocked him back to reality was when the yellow car tilted to the left and he looked over to see Monroe with his head out the window as he drove. "Uh, I can drive if you want," he said, not exactly feeling safe with him driving the car like that.
"Nah, I'm good," he responded, not thinking anything of Nick's statement.
Soon, they pulled over in the middle of the woods where Monroe got out, and Nick followed after. They walked through the woods for a while, coming to a stop in some bushes outside of a small wooden house.
"Alright, now you might want to use some of this," Monroe said, handing him a bottle of some elixir.
"What is it?" Nick asked, taking it in his hands.
"That, is wolfsbane. It will keep him from smelling you," he explained. "It only woks against Blutbads."
"Wait, will I need silver bullets?" Nick asked.
"No man! Are you crazy? And look, just please, don't tell her okay? In fact, I'd like you to stay away from us both as much as you can," Monroe said, very seriously.
Nick took it to heart, and said "I'll stay as far away as possible," and unknowingly lying once more.
