At first it was nothing more than a curiosity, a small question in the back of her mind that she dare not let herself think upon, call it what you will, fate, destiny, but, something in her heart told her this was right. Taking a shaking hand she opened the thick wide book open to the first page and let her large, doe grey colored eyes linger on what was on there. Taking in every line, every shape and coloring of skin, hair and eyes. Nikki felt at a loss for words as she contemplated just a bit more, looking back to the small pastel painting she couldn't help but wonder, is it possible? She wondered nervously. Hearing the front door open suddenly she jumped a foot in the air, forcing her to drop the book onto the floor as it clattered-it's impact on the floor was muffled by the carpet-and turned sharply to see Monroe entering their kitchen with a few bags of groceries, she swallowed as she took the book and, closing it properly on the coffee table went to join her boyfriend in putting the food away.
"Hey, how was your day?" Monroe asked, Nikki was still recovering from a car crash she had been set up for on her last case, four broken ribs, a fractured wrist and a concussion the size of Oregon and Washington state combined. She nodded,
"Good, you know, just looking through some old books I found" she licked her lips, as she found bacon, and not that vegetarian stuff Monroe always makes them, but real bacon, usually only when Nikki was out of work for reasons like this.
"Really? What kind of books?" he asked curiously, it was silent for a moment as the young Grimm found some frozen steak fries and put them away,
"Well, you know, they, um…are pretty old…mostly filled with different…um, drawings or paintings really…" she said uncertainly, god, how much trouble would she be if he found out she had been digging through his stuff in the attic?
"Oh, okay then," he seemed distracted by this and it made her wonder if he knew what kind of books she was talking about. After another twenty minutes of putting things away they went to sit in the living room, that was when Monroe saw the book,
"Oh" he stretched the word out, the Blutbad and Grimm sat, cuddling gently-on Monroe's part-as he reached over and brought the photo album to their laps.
"Yeah, my grandmother actually was given this when she was only a little girl. It's usually passed down to the women of the family but since I have no sisters it was given to me until…anyways, I think there's one you might like, I'm not sure if you've seen it or not but let's see if I can find it" he muttered, taking his time gently searching through years of paintings of Blutbadden, most of them are gory and violent, some are sweet or romantic but his favorite is-
"-Ha! Found it" he grinned triumphantly, Nikki's eyes stared in wonder, in the picture was a woman and a man, the woman had long beautiful black hair, she had her side fringes pulled back as bangs fell gently in her large grey doe-like eyes. She wore a black leather vest that tied in the front with a pair of black pants, the pant legs were tucked into a pair of knee high black leather boots, they were flat and looked surprisingly comfortable. Strapped to her back was two long swords. She was beautiful and had curves that made any woman jealous, she had a gentle smile and her eyes had a hint of innocent playfulness to her, around her throat was a chocker. The ribbon was black and thin, the charm that hung off the ribbon was a heart shaped crystal that looked strangely identical to the one in her nightstand in her and Monroe's bedroom.
The man standing next to her had on the same thing kind of, only his pants were brown and he wore a dark grey shirt. He had light brown hair that had a slight curl to it with brown eyes that looked warm but held some kind of mischief as well. He had his arms crossed while giving the woman a playful glare, all she did was look up at him with her innocent eyes.
All in all, the couple strangely reminded her of Monroe and herself.
"Her name was Nicole Hardt, while his name was Edward Monroe, she was the first female Grimm that started out a ruthless killer, but, after she saw the horrible times that the Wesen of that time were living in, she decided to change her ways, she became a Grimm like you. Trying to keep peace between the different species and trying to help them live a peaceful existence, that was when she met Edward Monroe. He was a Blutbad as well, he was like me and went Weider since it kept him in peace with himself, but Nicole had managed to run into him one day after he saved her from some Reapers. They've been inseparable ever since" Nikki looked thoughtful as she smiled up at him the way Nicole smiled up at Edward,
"They remind me of us, you know?" she grinned excitedly, he nodded as he placed the album on the table and leaned back, gently wrapping his arms around his Nikki,
"Yeah, they remind me of us too" after that they both fell asleep, Nikki wondering if past lives really could happen.