Note: These stories are set in an AU where the Silvertons acted as Nick's unofficial foster parents when Aunt Marie had to fight Wesen out of town and keep the people who'd killed his parents from finding Nick. Nick and Juliette have a brother-sister relationship. When I started work on my Grimm/Once stories, Grimm was in its second season. It was unclear where Nick and Juliette were going to go. I always pictured them more as friends than as a romantic couple for these stories, although that didn't become important till now.

I do not own Once Upon a Time or Grimm

X

The email subject was, "Rhinebeck 94." Kelly Burkhardt opened it and read, "You killed my son. I've found yours."

X

The woman had dark, curling hair. She reminded the boy of Mama, her face twisted into fury as it all too often was when she yelled at Papa.

But, this wasn't Mama. This was another woman, a stranger the boy had never met. They were standing on a road of stone. It was night, but strange lights glowed from lamps along the street, letting the boy see the bodies and the blood. The boy was crouched against the ground, but she seized him by the hair, hauling him up. "You did this!" she said. "You killed them!"

"Papa. . . !" The boy looked around, trying to spot his father. But, he wasn't there. Papa had let him go. Wherever The boy was, he was alone with this madwoman.

"Your father can't help you, Wesen," the woman said. She dragged him over to the bodies. Two, a man and a woman, were headless. The third, a child a little younger than the boy, stared blankly at the night sky. "But, you can help me," she said. "We're going to fix this."

Then, she pulled out a knife and brought it down on the boy's chest.

X

It was never a good sign when Nick's day started out with the dream.

It hadn't started after his parents died—or he didn't think it had. He'd had a lot of nightmares after that but he'd woken up unable to remember any of them. The dream had started when he was fourteen, not long after Aunt Marie left him with the Silvertons for the first time.

As an adult, it made sense to Nick. He'd been through a lot of upheavals in the past couple years since his parents were killed. Aunt Marie had been the one constant. When she was gone, the dream started. Night after night, the same one.

He'd never told the Silvertons, not even Juliette. Back then, it was because he'd grown up knowing there were some things you didn't discuss outside of family-not even with the foster family who'd practically raised you. Now, as a grown man, keeping quiet was just a habit. What would he tell someone like Juliette, anyway? There's a nightmare that's been bothering me half my life that I never mentioned to you before for no reason. And, now, I'm talking about it. For no reason.

Besides, it was just a dream. He'd been a kid uprooted from the one familiar thing he had left, so he had nightmares about the last time he'd lost everything. Pure and simple.

But, one thing Nick had learned was that, when he had the dream, he was almost always in for a bad day.

X

Another email with the same heading. Kelly opened it. There was a picture, a familiar one. It was a Japanese woodcut showing a samurai being attacked by a woman turning into a spider. Beneath it, it said, "Is this what gave you the idea?"

X

When Nick got to work, he saw the first sign of trouble, a woman waiting nervously at his desk. That wasn't unusual in the life of a police detective. Criminals, witnesses, victims, all of them had their reasons to look nervous. What was unusual was seeing a woman he'd had dead to rights in a murder investigation dropping in on him.

"Ms. Marcinko, you wanted to see me?" The words were polite—barely—but Nick fixed his eyes coldly on her and did everything he could to let her hear the icy fury he felt. Lena Marcinko had killed eight men that Nick knew of and had gotten away with it.

It must have worked. Her control slipped and she woged under his glare. Though no one human saw it, her face shifted, becoming a cross between a woman's and a spider's. She flinched as she met Nick's eyes. She was seeing the darkness Wesen saw when they looked at a Grimm. His friends, Rosalee and Monroe, had described it as an infinite darkness reflecting their own nature back at them.

"I was told to give you this," Lena said, putting a book down on Nick's desk, Tales from Japan. Her fingers twitched nervously over the cover. "And to tell you the Wesen version of one of the stories in it."

"Told?"

"By my lawyer."

"Oh, right," Nick said. "The guy who got you off for being a serial killer. Evil twin, wasn't that it? And the judge actually bought that story."

"I never wanted to hurt anyone," Lena said, looking away.

"But, you still killed eight men. Or did you get number nine? Is that why you're looking so much better? Or did you have to start over from the beginning and murder three more for the face lift? Is that what you do for your lawyer? Kill people?"

"I haven't—I didn't—" Lena woged again. She stopped, took a deep breath, becoming human. "My family's going to be moving soon," she told him. "My husband's been offered a job in a town called Storybrooke. You won't have to worry about us in your jurisdiction. But, before we go, I was told to give you this book and—and tell you one of the stories in it.

"It's a story of the first Spinnetod. Did you know that not all Wesen are born that way?"

"I'd heard," Nick said cautiously. There'd been a really disturbing story in the family records about what happened when a Hexenbeist seduced one of his distant relatives a couple centuries ago. Things like that were enough to make him think about joining a monastery. Talking to a Spinnetod, a type of Wesen whose females were driven to commit murder every few years and who usually killed and ate any man they slept with didn't help (he had to give Lena points on that one, she hadn't eaten her husband).

Lena opened the book and showed him what looked like a woodcut picture of a samurai being attacked by a woman in a kimono turning into a giant spider. "The oldest story of a Spinnetod comes from Japan," Lena said. "This is a legend, you understand, a myth. Most new-made Wesen don't survive. Some go mad before they learn to hide what they are. Our stories get confused very quickly.

"According to this one, a Shinto priest had a beautiful daughter, his only child. There was a fire, and she was badly injured, dying. The flames had burnt her face terribly. The priest used all his healing arts to try and save her. But, though she did not die, she did not get better.

"Now, one day, as the priest was tending her, he saw a poisonous spider crawling towards her. He tried to kill it, but the spider escaped him, crawling back into a small crack in the floorboards. But, not before he managed to strike off two of its legs. Days passed, and he saw the spider crawl out of the same crack in the floor. Yet, the spider had all its legs. Though they were short and stunted, the two it had lost had begun to grow back.

"He called on the god of the shrine and begged it to give his daughter the same gift it had given the lowly spider, that she might heal and be well. As he prayed, the spider crawled onto his daughter till it rested above her heart. The priest, sensing that either his prayer would be answered or that the god meant to grant her a swift death, watched, not daring to breathe.

"The spider sank into his daughter's flesh, vanishing from sight. Overnight, the girl healed, her former beauty restored." Lena stopped.

"Let me guess," Nick said. "There were problems."

Lena nodded. "Travelers came to the shrine two nights running. Both left early, before the priest was awake. Or so his daughter told him. On the third night, another traveler came. The priest only pretended to eat and drink what his daughter served him for the evening meal. She had drugged it. When she thought he was asleep, he saw her entering the guest's room. The priest burst in on them just as his daughter was transforming into a monster, a—a hideous spider." Lena's fingers curled as she said hideous. Her fingers woged into a spider's pincers. She went on. "The priest cursed her but, though he was able to drive her out of the shrine, he was unable to kill her.

"The girl paused as she ran out the gate. Turning back, she said to him, 'I am what you have made me, Father. You were the one who chose to give me a spider's heart.' Then, she ran away, never to be seen again. But, there were rumors of a beautiful woman who haunted the roadsides and would fall upon the traveler foolish enough to be out alone at night.

"That's the story," Lena said. "You can read it for yourself, but it's pretty much the way my mother told it to me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to be going."

"You expect me to just let you go?"

"You won't stop me from leaving," Lena said. She tried—and failed—to sound confident. "Or are you going to kill me in front of a station full of police? That would be quite the show. Don't worry. Once I'm gone, I'm gone. You won't need to worry about me again."

"I wasn't planning on worrying about you, just your victims."

"I . . . don't think there will be any more," Lena said. "You—you don't need to concern yourself. If you have any questions about the book or anything else, contact my lawyer. He said to give you this." Lena handed him a business card. It was glossy black with gold lettering. Unlike most business cards, there was nothing more than a name and a number, no profession, address, or even an email. But, the name was enough to grab Nick's attention: Mr. Gold.

The same name as the lawyer Monroe and Bud said had shown up out of nowhere to help Monroe when the Wesenrein had meant to kill him.

X

Kelly opened a third email. There was a picture of Nick and Juliette's house. The caption read, "Going over to meet the neighbors. Care to join us?" There was a date and a time.

X

The man in Juliette's garden didn't look threatening. Juliette, who had just gotten home from work, saw him standing by a tree. He looked frazzled despite his Armani suit. He was leaning on a cane with one hand and trying to lure down the cat stuck up in the branches with the other, offering it a small bit of ham.

It was a beautiful cat, Juliette thought, with the black silk fur and bright yellow eyes of a Bombay black. The cats looked like small panthers, although they were really quite friendly. Many even got along with dogs. Their primary purpose in life was to find a lap to curl up on.

Juliette stepped out the back porch and walked over. "Problem?" she asked.

The man looked at her anxiously. Juliette had guessed him to be in his forties but something in his soft, brown eyes made her thing she was wrong. He must be much older. "I'm sorry. Is this your yard?" he said. He had Scottish brogue. "I just moved in next door. I didn't think there was anyone home."

"I just got here," Juliette said. "Is that your cat?"

"A friend's," the man said ruefully. "I'm supposed to be watching her."

"Try leaving the ham on the ground," Juliette suggested. "Then, let's step back. The cat's probably scared. If we give her some space and a reason to come down, she might do it on her own."

The man dutifully dropped the ham and backed away, Juliette walking beside him. The cat peered over, momentarily interested in the ham. Then, she pulled back, cowering on the branch.

"I don't think it's working," the man said.

"Let me try this." Juliette reached into her pocket where she had a laser pointer from work. She turned it on, aiming the red dot onto the branch just in front of the cat. The cat swatted at it. Juliette pulled the light just out of reach, as if it were a piece of string she was teasing the animal with. She did that a few times till the cat got up and followed the light. Carefully, darting the red dot back and forth, pulling it just out of reach every time the cat almost "caught" it, she led it to the trunk.

Getting the cat down the trunk was a bit trickier. The cat froze up part way, realizing what she was doing. But, Juliette, brought the red dot right under her nose, and the cat went after it. It took some more work, but Juliette finally led her down. She moved the dot just a bit further, settling it on the ham, switching the light off as the cat triumphantly dug in her claws into her prize and ate it up.

Her meal finished, the cat noticed the man and trotted over, rubbing herself against his legs. He leaned down, scratching her behind the ears and beneath the jaw. The cat jumped up into his arm, purring contentedly.

"She seems very fond of you," Juliette said, reaching over and petting her. "What's her name?"

"Cinder," the man said. "And mine's Mr. Gold, Ms. . . ?"

"Silverton," Juliette said. "Juliette Silverton."

"What a lovely name. How did you learn to lure cats down trees like that?"

"I'm a vet," Juliette said. He seemed like a nice man, Juliette thought, though there was something a little shy and awkward about him. "I just got home from work. Would you like to come in and join me for a cup of tea?"

"Thank you," Mr. Gold said. He looked at the open door behind Juliette and smiled. There was a flash of something triumphant in his eyes. For just a moment, he reminded Juliette of the way the cat had looked when she brought her fangs down on the piece of meat, a victorious predator who had caught his prey. Then, he turned the smile on Juliette, and she wondered what was wrong with her. His brown eyes, meeting hers, were gentle and soft. "I would enjoy that very much."

X

The last message was a text. "The party's started. Hurry. It won't be the same without you."