Hello lovelies! This was written for virgo_97 who posted this lovely prompt over on LJ. Hope everyone likes it! :D
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Monroe was not worried. He wasn't, it wasn't possible, because worried would imply that he cared about the Grimm. So no, he wasn't worried, he was…curious as to why he hadn't heard from Nick in nearly a week. The detective had usually found a way to walk into his house unannounced by now and the fact that he hadn't heard or seen hide nor dark hair of the new Grimm in a little over six days was beginning to gnaw at him. He wasn't worried though. There was probably a reason and its not like he was the younger man's keeper or anything. He wasn't worried.
Still, calling him wouldn't be a bad idea. You know, for research…or something. Monroe dials Nick's number, simultaneously cursing himself for calling on the Grimm and waiting with bated breath for an answer. The phone rings two and a half times before its picked up and a distinctly not-Nick voice answers. This voice is female and sounds a little exasperated.
"Hello?" She answers into the receiver and Monroe physically pulls the phone away from his ear and checks the screen to be sure he dialed the right number. "Hello?" The voice says again, a little more insistent this time, and Monroe pulls the phone back to his ear.
"Hi, uh…I was trying to get in touch with Nick Burkhardt? Is he in?"
There a small exhale almost like a sigh on the other line. "I'm sorry, Nick can't come to the phone right now. He's sick and he's on strict bed rest for the rest of the week."
Monroe frowns; he should have known something was off when Nick had showed up at his house the last time. The younger man looked pale and drawn like he hadn't been sleeping well but Monroe had brushed it away as nothing more than detective/Grimm work. Now it all made sense. "I'm sorry to hear that. Is he alright?"
"Yes, he's fine," the voice sounds clipped and tired and just a tiny bit hysterical.
Monroe can hear the edge in her voice and he knows there's something else she's not saying. "But…?"
There's a heavy sigh and he can practically hear her shoulders slump. "Well…Nick's running a really high fever and we're out of Tylenol and I'm afraid to leave him by himself because he's so sick and-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Monroe cuts her off before she start hyperventilating. "Listen, I'll go to the store and get some medicine for you so you don't have to leave, okay?"
The relief is almost instant and he can hear her smile. "You'd do that?"
"Sure, its not that far away." Monroe has no intention of going to the store, not when he has a house full of herbs and roots that will work just as well and faster than anything he can get over the counter.
"Do you work at the station with Nick?" She asks and Monroe is a little thrown by the question. What does that have to do with anything? Its not like it really matters if he's offering to buy drugs for her invalid boyfriend, right?
"Yeah, I do." Sure, why not. If he's going to Hell anyway he might as well make it a memorable trip.
There's another sigh, relieved again, and he can tell she's grateful even though they've never met. She gives him the address, which Monroe already knows, and hangs up the phone with a small click. The minute the line goes dead, Monroe walks into the kitchen and begins pulling out various jars and bottles from his pantry. Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Yarrow, Green Tea; he lines them all up on the counter and looks back once more to see if there's anything he's forgetting.
He finds a messenger bag near the door and carefully drops the supplies inside, covering them with a dish towel to keep them from crashing into each other. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he grabs his keys and walks out to his car. The headlights flick on and he pulls out of the driveway, turning onto the main street and driving in the direction of Nick's house.
OOOOO
The woman who meets him at the door is wearing a t-shirt and has her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. She's very attractive but right now she looks tired and stressed and just a little bit frantic. There's a look in her eye, one that develops after one too many nights of lost sleep, and Monroe can tell she's at her wit's end.
"He started feeling bad Sunday night and thought he was just catching a cold," she explains when she lets him inside, leading him back to the bedroom when Nick is. "I took him to the doctor on Monday and they said he'd be fine after a few days of rest but he hasn't been able to keep anything down and he's been running a really bad fever since last night and-"
"Hey," Monroe keeps his voice soft but speaks firmly enough to silence her. "He's going to be fine, he doesn't have the plague. Its probably just the flu." He says this is the hopes that it really is just the flu and not something Grimm related. He doesn't know this woman and he's not sure if Nick has even told her about all the Grimm goings on he's been dealing with lately but he knows he doesn't want to be the one to tell her. That's all on Nick, Monroe plans to stay as far away from that conversation as possible.
Nick is curled on one side of the bed clad in little more than a pair of boxers and a t-shirt. The shirt is clinging to his back in a streak of sweat-darkened grey and he's sweating despite the goose bumps that cover his arms and legs. His eyes are closed but Monroe is pretty sure he's not sleeping, it looks more along the lines of fever induced unconsciousness.
Monroe approaches the sick Grimm carefully, not wanting to wake him if he really is just sleeping. Nick looks terrible, his face flushed and pale and the dark circles under his eyes standing out in stark contrast to the rest of his features. There's a reddish tint to skin along his cheekbones, evidence of the fever that's rendering him weak and vulnerable.
Monroe reaches out carefully and rests his palm against the younger man's forehead, frowning darkly at the heat coming off of him. Had he been human, he probably would have jerked his hand away from the intensity of the fever but he's not nearly as sensitive to heat as humans are. Still, the fever is dangerously high and he vaguely wonders why Nick is still here and not in a hospital somewhere.
"He hates hospitals," the woman answers from the door almost like she's reading his mind. "Since his parents died and ever since his aunt…" She lets the sentence trail off into obscurity because they both know how that ended. "I tried to take him but he refused. Hell, I was lucky to get him to sit still at the doctor's office."
Monroe nods and rocks back on his heels, standing slowly and walking back toward her. "Do you have a kettle I could use?"
The woman looks confused for a second but nods, casting one last desperate look at Nick before leading him back to the kitchen. She finds it in the cabinet and fills it up in the sink while Monroe comes around the corner with his messenger bag. He sets it on the kitchen table and begins pulling out the supplies he brought, lining them up in order across the wooden surface.
The woman turns and looks at the bottles, frowning in confusion again. "I thought you were going to get medicine."
"This is medicine," Monroe answers, taking out a granite mortar and pestle from the bag and measuring out the herbs he needs. "Its not from the drugstore or anything but its going to have the same effect."
The woman looks equal parts confused and irritated. "No, he needs real medicine. Things that have been verified by the FDA and certified not to poison anyone who uses them improperly."
Monroe resists the urge to roll his eyes. "Lady, listen, the stuff I'm using has been around longer than any FDA or drugstore on this planet. It was used for hundreds of years and you see our population still thriving so obviously it did some good, right?"
"Nick is sick and you're going to grind up some grass to feed to him? That's your plan?" She looks outraged and Monroe can hear the indignation in her voice. "This is ridiculous. I'm calling Hank."
"Call him all you like but I'm telling you, this stuff will work."
"Oh yeah? And I'm just supposed to take your word for it?"
"Yes."
The woman blinks at the simplicity of that response and shakes her head. "I don't even know who you are!"
"I told you, I work with Nick."
"Yeah, at the station. If that's true, show me your badge."
Monroe frowns for a second, figuring that lie would come back to bite him in the ass sooner or later. "Okay, look, I don't work at the station per say…"
The woman's eyes widen suddenly and she looks at him incredulously. "You lied to me?" Almost instantly, her surprise is masked by anger and she advances on him. "Get out! Get out of my house! I'm going to call the police!"
Monroe stands his ground. This woman is small, he could knock her over with one hand, but he knows that will do nothing to help his case. He's about to open his mouth to attempt to reason with her when he hears a muffled thud from the hallway. Before she has a chance to react, Monroe pushes past the woman and makes his way down the hall, coming to a stop in front of the bathroom.
Nick is heaving violently, gripping the edges of the toilet with both hands as each retch shakes his frame. It sounds painful and judging from the smell Monroe can tell there's nothing in his stomach but bile. The woman shoves past him a few seconds later, dropping to her knees beside Nick and rubbing his back gently. She's speaking softly, shushing him the way a mother would do with her child, and Monroe feels awkward just standing there.
After a few more painful gags, Nick slumps against the wall, eyes squeezed shut tightly and breathing uneven. The woman flushes the toilet and flips the lid down in one fluid motion, grabbing a wash cloth from under the sink and dabbing at his face gently. Nick opens his eyes just enough to look at her and Monroe hears him say the name "Juliet." A second later, he locks eyes with him and Nick smiles weakly. "Hey Monroe…" he groans, wincing as a shudder rocks him to his core. Well, that saves him the trouble of the woman, Juliet, calling the police.
Juliet looks at him carefully, obviously debating on whether she should trust him enough to help her take care of Nick or if she should stab him with the nearest sharp object. A second passes before she comes to her decision and she glances back at her sick boyfriend. "Could you help me get him back to the bedroom?"
Monroe crosses the bathroom and crouches down on the other side of Nick, looping the younger man's arm across his shoulders and standing slowly. Nick is nearly dead weight against him, his head falling forward and dark hair obscuring his eyes. Juliet is on the other side, keeping one arm wrapped around his back and the other barred across his chest to prevent him from falling forward. Monroe could have gotten Nick to the bedroom with no trouble on his own but he figures he shouldn't deprive her of her inherent motherly instincts and lets her stay close.
By the time they make it back to the bedroom, Nick has nearly lost consciousness again and is barely coherent enough to tumble onto the sweat-soaked mattress with more than a moan. Juliet busies herself stripping the sweaty t-shirt off of him and Monroe takes that at his cue to leave the room, walking back into the kitchen and finding the kettle that's whistling insistently.
He empties the ground herbs into a mug and pours hot water on top of it, adding a small amount of honey to take away some of the bitterness. He knows from experience that its going to taste a lot like mothballs but he also knows that it works. He takes the mug in one hand and a dry wash cloth in the other and makes his way back down the hall.
Juliet has wrestled Nick into a clean, dry shirt by the time he gets back and the detective is sleeping peacefully. He almost doesn't have the heart to wake him again but he knows he needs to get the fever under control before it gets any worse. "Can you get him to sit up?"
Juliet looks as torn as h is about waking Nick up but finally she nods and lays a gentle hand on his shoulder, shaking him lightly. Nick rouses and blinks in confusion, frowning for a second as the room swims around him. With Juliet's help, he manages to sit up, leaning heavily against the headboard and fighting the urge to be nauseous again. When Monroe hands him the mug, he looks at it like it contains a handful of poisonous snakes.
"It'll help you feel better," Monroe promises and God damn if Nick didn't give him those "I trust everyone" eyes when he said it. The detective takes a hesitant sip, grimacing and shuddering all the way down to his toes at the taste. "Yeah, I know, it tastes pretty terrible but it's going to help with your fever."
Nick is so damn obedient and trusting that it makes Monroe want to grit his teeth. He drinks everything in the mug, fighting back the urge to gag and be sick all over the bed. Juliet is beside him the whole time, one hand rubbing his arm and the other squeezing the back of his neck gently. When he finishes the tea, Monroe takes the mug and helps Juliet get Nick back into a reclined position. It only takes a minute longer before the detective is asleep again.
Juliet follows Monroe back into the kitchen and sags into a chair beside the table. She looks exhausted and he can tell she's been hovering over Nick for almost a week now. She absently scratches her nail over a long worn groove in the table and sighs heavily. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. I shouldn't have done that."
Monroe shrugs and rinses the mug out before he sets it in the sink. "Its not your fault. You're worried, that's all."
Juliet nods and stares at the wall like it has writing on it. "I'm used to dealing with dogs and cats and at the very most horses. I'm terrible when it comes to dealing with human illnesses." That explains the antiseptic smell Monroe had caught on her when he first entered the house. She's a vet so it makes sense that she would smell like rubbing alcohol and sterilized table tops. "Nick is always worrying that I'll come home one day with some variation of bird flu and he's the one who ends up with the bubonic plague." She laughs humorlessly and scrubs at her face with both hands. She hasn't slept much and its beginning to show. She's stressed and worried and dangling just on the edge of being hysterical. It seems to happen to women more than men in these types of situations.
She stands suddenly, walking over to the cabinet and grabbing a box of tea bags from one of the shelves. She inquires him with the quirk of an eyebrow. Monroe nods slowly and watches as she refills the kettle and sets it on the stove, cranking on the burner and watching the flames lick at the bottom of the pot. They don't speak for a few minutes while the water heats and finally the whistle of steam fills the kitchen. She grabs two mugs from the cabinet and drops a tea bag in each of them, pouring hot water on top of it.
Monroe watches her carefully, taking notice of the fact that her hands shake slightly as she fills each mug. Her fingers are long and slender but there's tiny scars and nicks from where she's worked with animals. There's a circular scar above her left thumb that looks like a bite mark and the skin is pale and a little shiny compared to the rest of her hand. She goes to take out the tea bags and Monroe stops her. "It hasn't steeped long enough."
Juliet looks at him in confusion and frowns. "I know how to brew a cup of tea," she tells him defensively and there's almost a pout in her voice.
Monroe tries not to roll his eyes. "Not the right way," he mutters under his breath but its not nearly as quiet as he thought it would be.
"Excuse me?" Juliet looks at him critically and Monroe figures getting himself kicked out of the house for insulting her tea-making abilities is not the way to approach this situation.
"Nothing. Here, why don't you sit down and I'll take care of this? You look like you're ready to fall asleep on your feet." He's trying to sound polite enough to get her to sit down without intruding in her kitchen. Women get so territorial in the kitchen, its weird.
Juliet finally nods and walks back to the chair she'd been sitting in, slumping down once more and resting her chin in her hand. Monroe turns back to the mugs, swishing the tea bags through the hot water slowly to release the tea. It smells like lemons and citrus and the tea is a light amber color by the time its steeped long enough.
"If you leave it in there too long it'll be bitter," Juliet comments from the table and Monroe is almost able to ignore her. Almost.
"Yes, but if you take it out too soon then you're just drinking brown water," he answers in return, plucking the tea bags from the mugs and dropping them in the sink so they can drain. "They have to sit long enough to release the tea's natural flavor." He turns and hands her a mug, taking his own and sitting down across from her.
Juliet frowns into the cup but the expression on her face tells him the tea is good. "What are you? An herbalist?"
Monroe shakes his head. "I'm a clock maker and a voluntary hermit…and sometimes Nick's informant."
Juliet raises an eyebrow and takes another sip of the tea. Monroe is absurdly proud of himself that she just unconsciously admitted that he was right about steeping the tea. "Informant? How did you become his informant?"
He sighs, shying away from this level of the conversation again. It really isn't his place to tell her anything about Nick's Grimm work. "It's a long story," he says, hoping it sates some of her curiosity. "I used to know a lot of unsavory people and I know how they work. Nick just asks me for tips sometimes."
The explanation is flimsy at best but Juliet accepts it and lets it go. Monroe figures living with a detective means she accepts the bare minimum of what Nick tells her without prying. It's a good and bad feature to have. "So you work with animals?"
She nods slowly and drinks more of the tea. "I thought about medical school for a while but liked animals more than people. Animals are easier to deal with and they usually don't cock an attitude with you when you have to do a procedure." Monroe almost laughs at that because he cocks an attitude every chance he can get but he lets that go. Once again, not his place to tell Nick's girlfriend that the big bad wolf is real.
"He works really hard, you know?" Juliet sounds like she talking to herself more than him right now but Monroe nods to be polite. "I mean, he was always a good detective but he really threw himself into his work after his aunt passed away. Maybe its his way of coping with her loss?" She looks at Monroe imploringly, wanting some kind of answer that he can't give her. Monroe just shrugs and nods, hoping it will suffice.
Juliet accepts that as well and sighs. "I just worry about him, you know? There's so many people out there that do really crazy things and I'm afraid Nick will get in over his head one day and not be able to get back out."
Monroe says nothing to that matter; he'd silently promised to keep the Grimm alive at all costs a week after meeting him. Nick was different, he wasn't like the Grimms from the stories his parents told him growing up. Nick was kind and tried to understand the creatures that hunted him, most of whom wanted nothing more than his head on a plate. Monroe figured he should protect that kind of innocence even if Nick didn't understand it.
He started to say something when a crash from the bedroom caused both of them to jump up from the table. It was simply the fact that she was closer to the door that Juliet made it down the hall before he did because Monroe was right on her heels. They reached the bedroom door at the same time, coming face to face with a thrashing Nick on the bed.
Juliet rushed over to him, calling his name and grabbing his shoulders. The detective was trapped in the depths of a fever dream and was fighting the visions off single handedly. That was probably the reason he clenched his fist and swung at Juliet. The blow would have been enough to break her jaw if Monroe hadn't grabbed her by the back of the shirt and jerked her out of the way a split second before. Nick's fist caught the bedside lamp instead and sent it crashing to the ground.
Juliet looked shaken, tears in her eyes, and Monroe took a step in front of her. The tea he'd given Nick was supposed to increase perspiration but that meant it probably spiked his fever in order to do so. There was no telling what Nick was seeing in his nightmares but it was bad enough to make him combative. He needed to get him under control before he hurt himself.
He walked over to the bed, catching both of Nick's wrists in his hands and pinning them to the bed. He knelt on the bed next to Nick, keeping a firm grip on him and trying to prevent the thrashing. The younger man was stronger than he gave him credit for and it took all his strength to prevent him from throwing another punch at him.
Juliet was standing by the door, tears streaming down her face as she watched the struggle. ""What's happening?" She sobbed, trying to come into the room but a look from Monroe made her hesitate.
"He's having a nightmare," Monroe ground out, finally crawling on top of the bed and using all of his weight to pin Nick down. "His fever is trying to come down but its giving him some nasty dreams in the process." He winced as Nick's knee caught him in the hip and nearly knocked him to the side. "Do you have any peppermint oil?"
Juliet blinked in surprise. "Peppermint oil? What-?"
"Ngh…it'll help cool him off," Monroe growled, fighting to stay on top of the still-thrashing detective.
Juliet nodded and ran out of the bedroom, disappearing down the hall into the kitchen. A few minutes later, she returned with a small plastic bottle. It was peppermint extract, not exactly what he was looking for, but it had alcohol in it so it was better than nothing.
Nick's struggling had lessened a bit and Eddie released the death grip he had on his wrists, taking the younger man's face in his hands gently. "Nick? Nick, can you hear me?"
Nick's eyebrows knit together for a second, confusion and pain passing over his face. "Marie…?"
Monroe felt his chest clench a bit at the name. Of course Nick was dreaming about something happening to his aunt, he'd been there nearly every time she'd been attacked. Behind him, Juliet let out a soft sound somewhere between a gasp and a sob and he could smell her tears from here.
"Not quite, buddy," he muttered, loosening his grip on Nick's wrists a bit more. The younger man's eyes opened for a just a second, glassy and hazed with fever, and he looked at Monroe. "What…?"
"You're sick, Nick," Monroe explained, ignoring the childish observation that the sentence rhymed. "You just need to get some sleep, okay? Go back to sleep, Juliet and I won't let anything happen to you."
Nick looked like he wanted to protest but exhaustion and sickness took their toll once more and he fell back into a fitful sleep. Juliet took another step forward and this time Monroe didn't stop her, the danger had passed. She sat down on the other side of him, stroking sweat-dampened hair from his forehead gently and kissing his too-hot skin.
Monroe opened the peppermint extract and poured a small amount into his hands, rubbing them together briskly before gently pressing them to Nick's face and neck. The peppermint was causing his hands to tingle and feel numb but he knew it would keep Nick cool while the fever worked its way out. He poured some more peppermint into his hands and brushed them down Nick's arms and across his chest. It wasn't enough to cause a reaction but it would do the job it was intended for.
Nick seemed to relax a bit and Juliet took the opportunity to curl up next to him, wrapping one arm across his chest and tucking her head in crook of his neck. She was murmuring something, it sounded a lot like a lullaby, but Monroe wasn't listening to her. He was listening to Nick's breathing. It was steady enough but it was congested and thick in his lungs. The tea would help loosen up a lot of that but it needed to take care of fever first.
For nearly an hour he sat there, watching the Grimm carefully in case he decided to get all punchy again. Juliet kept murmuring her lullaby and it seemed to be sending both of them to sleep, each verse because quieter and quieter. The fever broke around 2 am and Nick began to shiver so hard it vibrated the bed. Juliet looked panicked for a minute but Monroe reassured her that it was supposed to happen.
Nick was sweating heavily now as the fever finally released its hold on him and he tried to curl in on himself for warmth. Juliet was clinging to him, offering him what comfort she could, but Monroe knew it was only coming from one direction. Ignoring the awkwardness of the situation, he slid onto the bed behind Nick and wrapped his arms around him as well. Juliet looked confused for a second and he was about to argue that he wasn't trying to encroach on her territory, he was just trying to help, but she smiled in thanks and tightened her hold on Nick.
They stayed like that on the bed, both wrapped around Nick like a pair of human blankets, for close to an hour before the shivers finally died down. Nick was exhausted and laid limp and pliable against the mattress but he was noticeably cooler than he had been earlier in the evening. The fever had broken and the worst part was over.
Juliet smiled at Monroe over the curve of Nick's shoulder, mouthing a silent "thank you" as she stayed wrapped around him. Monroe simply nodded in return and kept a firm hold on Nick from behind. His breathing had evened out now and he was sleeping peacefully. Juliet looked like that was the only reassurance she needed because within a few minutes, she was asleep as well.
Monroe laid motionless for a long time, keeping an eye on the two sleeping humans. He'd leave a few bags of the herbs for Nick and give the instructions to Juliet. Natural remedies trumped pharmaceutical any day as far as he was concerned. The tea mixture would cure the flu faster than anything they got from the drugstore, it had been passed down in his family for generations.
The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon when Monroe finally detangled himself from the sheets on the bed. Nick and Juliet were still asleep and he left the room quietly in an effort to avoid waking them. He walked back into the kitchen and found a piece of paper, writing out the directions for the tea and folding it carefully.
The worst had passed and all Nick needed now was plenty of rest. Still, he wrote his phone number across the top of the page for Juliet just in case she needed it. He liked Juliet, she was smart and kind and fiercely protective of Nick which was something they both had in common. Nick needed that in his life right now. He hesitated, contemplating the last thing he was going to write on the sheet before finally coming to a decision. She needed to know…it wasn't right to keep it a secret from her any longer.
With a flick of his wrist, Monroe wrote a very small note a the bottom of the page. It wasn't meant to be a profound statement or a life changing realization but he figured if Nick wasn't going to tell her, then he'd take matters into his own hands.
Green tea: steep 2-3 minutes
Black tea: steep 4-6 minutes
White tea: steep 2 minutes
Herbal tea: steep 4-6 minutes, sometimes up to 10
Hope this helps.
-Monroe
Hope you all liked it! :D