AN: Without further ado, Part One of my continuation of the Nadiland saga started in "Coming to Terms." Estimate this fic will be approximately 15 chapters, as I am currently stuck on chapter 11. The (the writer's) block associated with that has spawned various other fics related to this sphere, mostly of the fluff variety, probably because this one won't be quite as light-hearted as those, and you can check them out as well.

Leave some feedback though first.

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"Nick? Have you seen my briefcase?" Adalind called out from the bedroom where she was trying to decide which dress to wear. She settled on a ¾ sleeve black shift and slipped into it. It was her first day back to work after a long, multi-year hiatus. She heard Nick mutter something, probably a remark about how she was driving him crazy with all the preparation to get ready, before he replied.

"What does it look like?"

"A briefcase," she replied. And she definitely heard him mutter something that time.

"I'll look," he offered with a sigh, and she heard the dining room chair slide back from the table where he was feeding their son breakfast.

Their son. That phrase never got easier to comprehend no matter how many times you said it. "Thank you," she called, but he ignored her. She shrugged and checked her reflection in the mirror, smoothing the wrinkles out of her dress, checking her look from side to side, before slipping some jewelry over her head, before scrapping it and deciding on a Hermes scarf.

"Is this it?" Nick said, holding out the object in question as he came into the room. He was already dressed for work, black jeans, worn work boots, button up shirt that she had picked up from the dry-cleaners last week, hair still slightly damp from his shower, gun and badge already clipped to his belt.

"Yes," she sighed happily. "Thank you. Where did you find it?"

"Study." He turned to head back into the living area when she stopped him again.

"Can you-?" She began, turning her back to him and indicating the dress that still needed to be zipped. He looked at her for a moment before nodding and stepping forward to zip her up. She wondered what was up with him. He was hard to read sometimes, pensive and tense—his Grimm face—as she thought of it, and other times he was sarcastic, but affectionate, understanding and caring, but the last week he had been more Grimm-like she decided. He had been supportive, at least on the outside, of her going back to work, but she thought he might have some misgivings about it.

Well, so did she, she thought, but she wasn't going to mention it. She needed her confidence today of all days; to be in the zone. Not the fretful musings of a mother leaving her child in someone else's care for the first time after a year of looking after him day in and day out; or of a mother that had already had one child taken away from her when she had not been careful enough to prevent it; or of a suppressed Hexenbiest about to return to a very dangerous world for her, doubly so since said suppressed Hexenbiest birthed a Grimm's child, and was currently living quite cozily with him.

And that never got easier to comprehend no matter how many times she said it to herself, either.

"Thank you," she said, swiveling around to face him and place a kiss on his mouth, and he managed a brief smile for the effort.

"What do you think? How do I look?"

He glanced over her, and Adalind knew before he opened his mouth that she was going to be disappointed with his answer.

"Fine. Good," he added, as if realizing the former might not be enough.

"Good," she repeated.

Nick waved his hand in front of him helplessly. "Great?" he tried.

"Never mind," Adalind muttered, and he looked both apologetic and relieved. He fled back to the dining room table where Kelly had managed to smear most of his bananas across the table and in his hair.

"I don't have time to clean him!" Adalind said in a panic, especially as cleaning him would undoubtedly result in Adalind having to start the whole process of getting ready all over again.

"I've got him," Nick replied hefting him into his arms and carrying him in the bathroom. She watched father and son disappear into the bathroom, absentmindedly opening her briefcase and filling it with a couple of legal pads; two file folders she had been reviewing the contents of before she was officially back at work; pens; and a couple of highlighters. She heard Kelly babble and squeal as Nick made him presentable again, and took a moment to marvel at how good he was at being a dad.

He didn't usually think so—and in fact was quite unconvinced of his talent and ability in that arena, but he really took to it well, and it suited him well. She had done good, she thought, to have had a child with him, although a year and a half ago you could not have convinced her it was anything but the worst mistake she could never have had predicted.

He took pains to make sure she and his son were as safe as possible, guarded them and would defend them with his life if need be to keep them all together, which was more than she could say about her last baby's father. She felt a pain in her chest when she thought of Diana, and turned away from Nick and Kelly in the next room to close her briefcase and get herself back under control. Confident. She told herself firmly. Thinking of Diana made her want to cry, and that definitely eroded one's confidence. She missed her terribly, and wondered if she was okay and if they would ever find her. Nick had said he thought she was okay, pointed out the Royals wanted her because she was a descendant of that line and would do everything in their power to protect that and her, but Adalind couldn't help but wonder what her daughter's life was like.

Did somebody love her? Understand her? Play with her? She looked again over to where Nick was with their child and felt an ache in her throat. How full and wonderful their son's life was, comparably speaking. Two parents that loved him and were devoted to him despite the utter clusterfuck that was his every reason of being. She hoped Diana understood how much she loved her and had wanted her—that she would do anything to have her back with her. She was grateful that Kelly—Nick's mom, Kelly- had taken such good care of her, had tried to do what she could to make things better despite all that had happened. She looked down and dabbed at her eyes. Stop it, she told herself firmly.

"You okay?" Nick asked in concern, having come out of the bathroom, holding their son against his hip, and she looked up with a watery smile and tried to convince him she was fine. Kelly—their Kelly—looked at his mom with the same expression in his eyes as his father, and Adalind was reminded how much they looked alike, despite Nick claiming to never see it. He always thought Kelly looked like his mom, and Adalind didn't understand how Nick couldn't see that he looked like his mom. Kelly's hair was starting to darken from the baby fine dirty blond locks that he had sported the last few months from his birth, into something that would probably more resemble his dad's deep brown hair color than hers when it was all said and done. He already had his father's smart green eyes, and Adalind wondered if she had managed to produce a mini-me of the man who she had blamed at one time for ruining her whole life after she set about ruining his. She wondered what it would feel like, if they ever broke up, to raise a child in such a likeness as to the one who she had tried to kill on several occasions, and decided she needed to give up this line of thinking before she broke down in tears and ruined her makeup.

"I'm fine," she managed to whisper and waved Nick away when he moved as if to embrace her. "I'm fine," she said, a little stronger and Nick rocked back on his heels.

"We need to get going." she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "I'm supposed to drop Kelly off at the daycare thirty minutes before work," and she had the sneaking suspicion she would use the remaining 25 minutes sobbing in the employee bathroom, agonizing over the decision. She wasn't sure about the daycare. Had wished someone like Rosalee could have taken him during the days instead, before remembering Rosalee had had a part in taking her daughter away from her. But she knew Rosalee wouldn't ever take Nick's child away from him, and she felt reasonably sure that she wouldn't take another child away from herself. But Rosalee had the spice shop to tend to, and helping Nick with whatever Wesen case he presented her and Monroe with, and that was two full-time jobs anyway before you added caring for an infant into it. As it was, Rosalee was an emergency contact for Kelly in case something prevented either Nick or Adalind from reaching him and she would have to reconcile herself with that as enough.

"Okay," Nick said. He hefted Kelly's diaper bag, and Adalind shrugged into her coat, slung her handbag and briefcase over her shoulder and grabbed a travel mug of coffee and followed him out the door into the elevator.

"Mama, mama, mama," Kelly babbled and Adalind smiled at her son, but he continued to mumble to himself and anyone who would listen as Adalind mentally checked through her list of to-do's as they descended into the warehouse below.

"Okay, I think I got everything," she said as they stepped off, and Nick helped her load Kelly and his things into her car. Juliette's old car. When she got settled back in at work and a few paychecks behind her, she was going to buy a new car. Not that she didn't appreciate all that Nick had done to help her get back on her feet and support her, but driving your...whatever Nick was...but anyway, his former girlfriend's, who had turned into a Hexenbiest herself and blamed the mother of his child for her misfortune and then tried repeatedly to kill said mother of child, well, driving her car was awkward.

And it was so not her style, but Adalind had appreciated the independence the car had given her so she kissed Nick goodbye and took off for the next chapter in her life.

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Oh my god. It was horrible. Horrible. And it's not that she knew it wasn't going to be easy, but...oh my god. She was horrible.

She sniffled again, and tore off another piece of toilet paper from the dispenser in the stall where she had holed up in as soon as she had fled Kelly's daycare. It wasn't the people. They were so nice, and she genuinely liked them, but when she had handed Kelly over to his daycare worker, Felicia, and she had waved goodbye, and started to hurry out of the room, she had heard it. "Mama?"

There was no doubt he had realized she was leaving him there. This was further confirmed when he started to wail, but Adalind had kept going, as Felicia had instructed her to do—a clean break, she had said—and only cast tearful eyes over her shoulder as she rounded the doorway. She could still hear Kelly's cries as she fled the hallway for the bathroom, where she was currently ensconced, going over everything in her head, from his betrayed, tearful face, to her shortcomings as a mother, and wondering if she should just quit her job now and resign herself to being a burden to Nick for the rest of their natural lives. Or at least until Kelly finished college.

Felicia had called about ten minutes ago, to let her know Kelly was fine. Had quieted down, in fact, a few minutes after she had left, and Adalind managed a tearful thank you and hung up.

She sniffled again, and touched the tissue to her nose. She debated on calling Nick, but she had only just left him thirty minutes ago, and besides, he hated when she called him at the precinct crying about something that he had no idea how to fix over the phone. And really, there wasn't anything he could do to fix it anyway, except tell her to quit, and her own stubborn pride wouldn't allow for that, although she desperately wished for the scenario to play out that way anyway.

She told herself firmly to get a grip. Kelly was in good hands. Dozens of people had vetted that daycare as safe, caring, and educational. There had been a wait-list as a matter of fact to get in, and an interview process, which Nick had rolled his eyes at and grumbled and complained about when she had forced him to attend, but fortunately the director was Wesen, and when she realized who Nick was, and that she would be saying no to a Grimm, Kelly had jumped to the front of the line without even Adalind having to get bitchy. And she had been prepared to get bitchy if need be, although truthfully she was somewhat out of practice and relieved that she hadn't had to do it.

There definitely were some perks to having a child with Nick besides the obvious ones.

So, it was time to get her game face on, and that was easier said than done when she was a hexenbiest with powers, but nevertheless, she threw her shoulders back, sniffed a couple of times more loudly, and stepped out of her stall. She flashed an apologetic smile at a startled woman at the sink beside her, and set about fixing her face to something resembling a functioning and mentally and emotionally well-balanced human being's.

"I can do this," she told her reflection, and took another deep breath and counted to ten and gathered her things and headed out the door.

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What had she been thinking when she told herself coming back to work was a good idea. Well, she knew what she had been thinking. She had been thinking she was getting bored of just staying at home, still uncomfortable about being basically Nick Burkhardt's kept woman/baby-mama/lover/whatever-it-was-too-complicated-to-label-right-now-with-a-label. Or at least too complicated for a one or two-word label. She had needed her independence back, and the financial stability that supported it, and she needed to contribute something to society other than adding to Nick's amusement on occasion.

Still, had it been so bad being a kept woman? Another time in her life she might not have minded so much, although Nick, on a detective's salary, really didn't make the kind of money where she had envisioned that scenario as being so desirable. Regardless, if she had stayed that way, at this time in the afternoon she and Kelly would be taking their daily sojourn to the coffee shop and park to enjoy the swings and the warm unseasonable weather. Not where she was now, in her corner office, locked in a glass fishbowl, trying desperately not to scream or cry where the vultures watching could see.

Her phone rang and she lunged for it, glad to have the excuse of taking her mind off her slow descent into insanity, and almost cried in relief when she saw who it was. She swiveled in her executive chair to look out the windows at the stunning view of Portland from her seventeenth floor office.

"Nick!"

"Just called to see how you were doing," Nick said, and she couldn't help a sob that threatened to escape. She really didn't deserve him. He really was quite caring and level-headed, and took his responsibility as a police officer, Grimm, father, and significant other quite seriously. That's what Adalind had called him as she was filling out paperwork this morning. Significant, Other. He was significant to her, and other, so she supposed it fit, but she realized how hard it was to explain his relationship to her to the real world and how impersonal the label sounded. Baby-daddy was true enough but it didn't really fit, as did lover, but that didn't seem to work either. Boyfriend felt strange on her tongue, after everything they had been through and been to each other, and Adalind just couldn't make herself say it. She had noticed neither had Nick, but she didn't think she had the right to ask what they should refer to themselves as to others. Besides, she was hoping he would figure something out on that front, and then she could just borrow his word.

"Adalind?" he said with some worry, and she realized she hadn't responded to his question.

"Oh, Nick," she managed. It's awful, she wanted to say. She could imagine the look on his face, the adorable confusion, and found herself instead saying, "It's been a little bit rough going, but it's good. I'm glad to be back." She was sure if she just said that enough it would be true.

"That's good," Nick said after a moment where he probably debated on believing her, but true to form he didn't want to call her on it and risk getting into it. Adalind nodded her agreement even though he couldn't see it.

"How's your day?" She asked, deflecting conversation away from any more inquiries about her job.

"Hank and I are on a double-homicide," Nick replied.

"Fun," she said. He snorted.

"I might be a little late tonight. You're still okay to get Kelly, right?"

"Yeah," if he'll have me after leaving him with total strangers all day.

"Okay, great. That's all I really wanted, to check up on you and check about Kelly."

"Okay, well thanks," she said, and Nick said, "Gotta go," and hung up.

She heard the end-call tone sound and placed the phone on her desk with a sigh. She wished she could place her head on the desk, but she picked up the pen she had been using to scribble notes about one of the cases Berman had given her and started up again.

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True to Nick's word, he wasn't home when Adalind slid the gate up and entered the loft with Kelly. She set him down gently and dropped her bag and briefcase with far less care. He had been fussy from the moment she picked him up, punishing her for leaving him, she was certain, and she felt she was in for a long battle into the night with him. One thing about Nick's genes, that Grimm determination, pun intended, had definitely been passed on. Otherwise Kelly had inherited his mother's stubbornness and that didn't bode well for the next couple of decades, either.

"I suppose we should find something to eat," She told Kelly, who toddled around unsteadily before falling to the ground and crawling to his toys. She marched to the fridge to survey its contents, looking for something simple and easy, and microwavable, maybe, since she still had a ton of depositions to go through. She could suddenly see the appeal of those TV dinners, though she had never deigned to have one herself, but the thought of dinner over and done within five minutes sounded magical. She closed the door to the fridge and opened a few cupboards instead, but all she could think about was feeding, bathing, and putting Kelly to bed so she could get started on work. She settled on getting Kelly something to eat, as he was the easiest to figure out anyway, and within a few minutes she had something in front of him.

...That he absolutely refused to eat. Even stared at her with that look Adalind remembered from Nick back when they weren't so accommodating to one another as they were now, the look that said, "Go ahead, if you think you can try it, but I guarantee you you won't last five seconds."

Great. One day in daycare and her son was already turning against her.

"Come on Kell-bell," she said, sitting beside his high chair, and wondering how her life could be masterminding convoluted legal arguments one minute, and uttering airplane, siren, and Wesen Sounds of Northern Austria to make a determined one-year old open his mouth and eat, the next.

Kelly didn't budge, and was starting to protest, in fact, when he heard the elevator clang, heralding the sound of his father, The Savior. "Dada?" he said and there was no mistaking the hope in his voice. Adalind sighed and gave up, as Kelly's attention was turned to his imminent rescue with Nick's arrival.

"Hey," Nick said. "I thought you might be tired after your first day, so I brought Chinese home," he held up the bags, and Adalind could have kissed him, and then decided she should do just that.

"Wow. That bad?" he asked, when they broke apart. Adalind just shook her head. "Well, you can tell me about it over dinner, if you want. Otherwise I've got a Gluhenvolk story that I'm sure you'll love."

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"It's only the first day," Nick said, when Adalind relayed the whole sordid story to him in bed after he had fed, bathed, and put Kelly to bed, with minimal fussing on Kelly's part. She had taken a bath herself while Nick tended to Kelly and felt somewhat refreshed, but now she was staring at the depositions she had brought into the bedroom with her to look over, and she really just wanted to curl up in a ball and go to sleep.

"I know," she said with a sigh. She watched Nick fiddle about the room, removing his gun from his belt and stripping down into his boxers and T-shirt, dropping his clothes on the chair in the corner, before throwing back his side of the covers. He had a folder, too, to look over. Photos he wanted to go over again of a crime scene, and Adalind had caught a glimpse of one and had shuddered. Thank god she was a corporate lawyer, not a criminal one. Although she had seen and dealt with stuff far worse, she supposed, not all that long ago, and was glad those days were behind her.

She nudged a folder of her own with her foot and picked it up with sigh of resignation and leaned back against the headboard to study it.

"I forgot how much there is to do. It's so fast-paced and there's so much pressure," she said.

"You'll do great," Nick said, with the default response of the supportive...boyfriend, she tried, and groaned inwardly. It just didn't work for them. She toyed with asking Nick point-blank what they were to each other in his mind, but she was always hesitant to force his attention on evaluating their confusing relationship, lest he suddenly recall everything that had occurred in it and decided enough was enough, and what the hell was he doing with her in this capacity? That she had his support raising their child was amazing, but that she had somehow through all of it earned his affection was incredible, and she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, no matter how much she wanted answers.

He was definitely different from all her lovers past, and that wasn't even getting into the fact he was a Grimm. He actually stood for something, and acted with integrity, because it was the right thing to do, not just the right thing to do for him. Sex between them was explosive, and she didn't know if it was just him, her, a combination of the two, or what happened when a Grimm and a Hexenbiest decided to get busy together. He stood up for her and supported her, and Adalind realized she needed to get off the subject of Nick and get focused on work. Berman was expecting a memo tomorrow morning and for her to present her findings in the 10:00 a.m. Meeting and she needed more pertinent information on her notes than Nick's name dotted with a little heart over the "i", which was probably what he was going to get if she kept on this sentimental train of thought.

She glanced over at Nick who was studying a particularly gruesome photo of the deceased with his cop's eyes. She allowed a moment to admire his profile, noting that she saw a strong resemblance between son and father in the line of his jaw and shape of his skull. She wished she had some photos of Nick as a baby to compare Kelly to, and wondered if Nick had any in storage somewhere. She glanced down at her lap, and the blank legal pad beside her, and forced herself to get serious.

She awoke with a start, Nick leaning over her to turn off the bedside lamp. The room was blanketed in darkness, and it took a few seconds to adjust her eyes to the small amount of light that streamed through from the windows above them. "What time is it?" She asked sleepily.

"11:50," Nick said, and she realized with a jolt that she had to be up in five hours, and still had three more depositions to go through. She turned to the nightstand, where she could make them out where Nick had laid them, and pondered getting up and going to the kitchen to continue. The decision was made, however, when she felt Nick settle beside her, arm slung protectively around her, and nose pressed into the crook of her neck, and she relaxed into the embrace, letting the fatigue wash over her.

"Goodnight," he murmured placing a kiss against her temple and she heard his breathing level out into the even keel associated with sleep after a while. She pondered her case and her life before sleep finally decided to take pity on her.