Note:This hiatus is so inconvenient! I miss Nick & Adalind terribly and have decided to dive into writing a fic about them. I love their story so much and want it properly explored. However my little story is A/U. There are no Grimms, nothing at all supernatural. It's a bastardisation of their story, hopefully, I won't screw it up. I will do my best to update regularly. I appreciate any and all reviews.

ENJOY!

Chapter 1

"You're choosing her over me?" Juliette asked him, pain etched all over her face. Her delicate features turned stone hard. He couldn't even look at her as she flung accusation after accusation at him. Nick remained silent, unable to defend himself. What could he say? She was mistaken. He wasn't choosing anyone over her, especially not Adalind Schade but the words couldn't come out.

"Juliette…" he reached out to her, hoping to take her in his arms and calm her down; convince her of his feelings for her.

"No, don't!" She shoved his hands away and any attempt to reconcile. "You have made a fool of me for the very last time." She spat at him and walked away from him to stand at the window. It was amazing how quickly things changed between them. Nick was at a loss at what to do. He was paralysed with feelings of uncertainty and helplessness, a first for him.

As a detective, Nick was used to taking charge, taking control and finding solutions to problems thrown his way but that was his professional life. While he soared professionally, his personal life crumbled brick by brick and it all began with Adalind Schade. The day the woman came into his life, she was a source of trouble for him unlike anything he'd ever known and now she'd come between him and Juliette.

"I can't believe I wasted six years of my life over nothing. I see now that I was right in rejecting your proposal all those years ago, only I was stupid to hold on to some hope Nick, that we'd have it all one day. I knew I couldn't trust you but I let you convince me that you loved me, that I meant something to you."

"Juliette please," he interjected, not liking where this was going. "I do love you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me." He pleaded with her.

"Ha-ha, wow, now that the scales have finally fallen from my eyes, I'm seeing things clearer. You don't love me. I'm starting to think you never did. Or else that engagement ring wouldn't have stayed locked away in your drawer for three whole years Nick, THREE YEARS! I am such an idiot and that wretched woman's ever-expanding belly is testament to that. I forgave you when you lied to me about your work. I forgave you when bringing your work home almost got me killed. I even forgave you when I found out about you cheating on me, you and some tramp going at it behind my back…"

"Now wait a minute, you know that's not how it all went down. I couldn't tell you about my work because it was so dangerous, working undercover for I.A. to bust a ring of crooked cops, and that case isn't even closed yet because the cop that's running the show is still roaming free because he's covered his tracks very well. I did everything I could to keep you safe and because I wanted to earn your trust, I confessed everything I was doing. I only did what you wanted and now you are punishing me for putting you first, for risking everything, you, me, the case. You are not being fair." He didn't mean to shift blame but Juliette was backing him into a corner and Nick didn't like being pushed around. If his upbringing taught him anything, it was to stand up for himself. Never did he expect his girlfriend to be the one on the other side.

"So now it's my fault. Some bitch is pregnant with your baby and I'm to blame? Last I checked we were together when your precious baby was conceived. In fact we were together just hours between you and Adalind…ugh, I can't even finish that sentence. My skin crawls just thinking about it. I can picture the two of you just laughing your heads off about fooling me. When I came home when I did and almost caught you two in the act, I knew something was wrong, like something was out of place. When I discovered the truth, you had the audacity to lie to my face, claiming you thought it was me all along. How drunk must you be to mistake a blonde for a brunette?" She shamed him into silence.

What could he say to that? He was drunk out of his mind. Monroe had taken him out for celebratory drinks. Rosalee had agreed to marry him. Nick honestly couldn't remember drinking all that much, or even meeting up with Adalind after he left the bar. Where in the world did she even come from? How could he explain himself when he barely knew the exact happenings of that evening? All Nick knew was that it was the best sex of his life. He went to sleep with a goofy grin on his face, he was so thoroughly sated and he did wake up with Juliette in his bed so why would anything be amiss?

That's when the dreams came. Things were good between him and Juliette but not THAT good. For days, he woke from sleeping, dripping with perspiration, his skin still tingling with wicked sensations after reliving the same dream over and over. He would cling to Juliette even more, trying to replicate his dream and make it a reality, but something, somewhere since that fateful night had changed. Nick had a sense of dread but couldn't understand its origin. He felt as though he was living a double life. He couldn't merge his dreams and his reality and this confused him. How could his dreams be filled with such passion and longing and leave nothing for him when he was awake? He loved Juliette but the realisation that their life together wasn't as passionate as he wanted or even hoped, he resigned himself to their simple coupling.

After several weeks of not sleeping together because of the demands of my job, Juliette cooked him a romantic dinner in an effort to revitalise their love life. The conversation was easy and light until Nick brought up that day. Juliette's countenance and mood quickly changed. She demanded to know what he referred to and that's when the ugly truth came out. Nick's wild night of passion was not with Juliette. It was like a gut punch. Impossible, he thought. Who else could it had been, he asked her, he broke out in a cold sweat.

He insisted it was she, recounting what little he could remember but their evening quickly turned into a nightmare. The more he talked, Juliette's face turned green, like she'd up-end her dinner right there in front of him. Nick became desperate. The truth was that Juliette had left Portland that morning, after kissing him goodbye to attend a conference outside of town. She didn't see him until she returned home late that night, finding him naked in bed. Convinced that what she said was the truth, Nick felt sick. How could he betray Juliette this way? Why didn't he question he quick return home, knowing her plans for that day?

He asked for her forgiveness, accepting responsibility for his actions but she wouldn't listen to him anymore that night. For the first time in years, they slept in separate rooms, Juliette was too disgusted to even look at him. He was about to lose everything over one night with a woman, whose face he couldn't even remember but that could be because in his dreams, Nick's attention wasn't to her face but rather a pair of beautiful, firm breast and the tightness of his loins every time the mysterious woman touched him with her soft hands. If that wasn't Juliette, then who was she?

It took weeks of convincing but Juliette learnt to put the entire incident behind them, blaming Nick's inability to hold his liquor, so he steered clear of alcohol until things finally settled down between them. It wasn't easy. The reunion was tenuous at best but Nick didn't want to lose Juliette. Their life wasn't perfect but it was a life he worked very hard to have.

Weeks later he saw picture of Adalind in the morning paper and that familiar tightness in his nether regions hit him like a eighteen tonne truck. He didn't even need to dream of the mysterious woman to know that it was Adalind Schade, but he did. He dreamt of her that very same night and for the first time, he saw her blonde locks as they cascaded over her naked torso and the bluest eyes he'd ever seen bore into his soul. For the first time since he's met Adalind, Nick didn't want to throttle her. He wanted to caress her, to hold her tight against his own body as they bathed in sticky sweat from a night of hot sex. He shook his head in anger at the treacherous thought.

Adalind was a corporate lawyer but that didn't mean they didn't cross paths. Nick has put away a lot of horrible individuals behind bars, but the worst of them are the ones with deep pockets and lawyers that had no scruples, let alone a moral compass. While he worked hard to uphold justice and make sure criminals paid for their crimes, she worked harder to make sure they didn't. Their antagonistic relationship began after they officially met outside of court, after the acquittal of one of the leaders of one of the biggest crime families in Portland, whose reach spanned continents, all the way to Vienna, Austria. She took pleasure in thwarting his every move to clean up Portland.

Unfortunately finding out the truth of that night didn't change the effect of this dream of her on him. The longing he felt over the simple photo was as intense as the night he slept with her. Nick could almost smell her intoxicating perfume. It wasn't the one Juliette used. A wave of guilt swept over him. Why did he take Adalind home that night? And even more disturbing, for the first time in years, Nicholas Burkhardt wanted a woman that was not his girlfriend and he hated himself for it.

He kept this revelation from Juliette in the hopes that he would quickly get over everything. Whatever was happening to him wasn't real and reminding himself of the life he had with Juliette and the future he hoped to have, would make things right again. For months he had thought the woman in his dreams was Juliette despite the countless clues that it wasn't. Nothing needed to change. Adalind meant absolutely nothing to him and after the most difficult period of his relationship with Juliette, he didn't want to rock the boat even more. Juliette didn't need to know that the woman he had a drunken one night stand with, was the same one that almost got her killed and took a certain glee in that.

That was months ago. Nick had managed to put Adalind behind him, that newspaper photo being the last time he'd seen of her. Juliette was none the wiser or so he thought. Nick was unpleasantly surprised to learn that his girlfriend had grown close to his superior, Cpt. Sean Renard. He had his suspicions about his Captain and his intentions. Unlike Juliette, Nick gave her the benefit of the doubt. There was nothing going on between the two of them. It was Renard that helped her by giving her information surrounding her attempted murder, specifically, a name. Adalind Schade, a name she'd previously heard from the lips of her sleep-talking boyfriend. The first time she heard him moaned her name in his sleep, set her blood cold.

Juliette had met Adalind on at least three separate occasions, two of which were around the time someone tried to kill her and the last one was after Nick's betrayal. And all three times, she sensed that the other woman was privy to some secret and taunted her, speaking in riddles, more so the last time they met. When Renard gave her Adalind's name, it didn't take long to put two and two together, that Nick deliberately withheld this from her, destroying the image she had of him completely. Juliette was livid at the deception, the lies, she planned to confront Nick with everything she knew that afternoon and that when she saw Adalind at the precinct, visibly pregnant.

"I hate you so much right now." She said after the room filled with unbearable silence.

"Honey, it was never my intention to hurt you."

"Oh really? Why didn't you tell me Adalind was the one that hired that animal to come after me? Why didn't you tell me you slept with my would be killer? Is it because she matters to you more than I do? Is that why you deliberately stood between her and me earlier today at the station? You know how I suffered that night Willie Jenkins broke into our home. The reason he didn't finish what he was hired to do was because Monroe stopped by to see you over another one of your secrets."

"I know you are angry with me and I accept that but you cannot honestly expect me to stand aside and watch you assault a heavily pregnant woman in a police station. I know you think that's me choosing this woman over you but I love you. I have always loved you even if you question my feelings right now, that is the truth."

"Please, don't make me laugh."

"I don't know what else you want me to say. You are the person that I love and want to be with."

"And your baby, are you just going to forget all about him? What about Adalind? You sure could have fooled me today. I have eyes Nick. I saw you, when you placed you palm on her belly, the way you smiled at her when you felt him kick. When was the last time you even smiled at me like that? Every time you look at me, it's like I bore you. You are always tired. And I heard as well; you two talking privately in Renard's office, the way you said her name, like a lover's caress. I have heard it so many times from your lips, I couldn't take it anymore. This is what I get for loving you, you secretly pining after another woman." She said bitterly.

Nick grew tired of beating his head against the figurative wall.

"What about you and Renard?" he said in anger, his temper simmering to a boil. The look on her face told him she didn't expect that.

"What about Renard?" she flustered. Suddenly Nick saw what was under his nose this whole time. While he worked to hold together their sinking relationship, Juliette had found solace elsewhere and it cut him. What a hypocrite, he thought angrily. She stood there in judgement over him and yet here she was, her own sins fouling up the air.

"This is rich" He said sarcastically. "You are deflecting. It's so much easier for you to crucify me over one mistake that happened months ago while you and Renard have been doing what exactly…behind my back? I knew he's had a thing for you for years now but looking at your flushed face, I'd say something's happened between you two and more than once." He hit the jackpot.

"How long has this being going on? You know what, don't even bother. It's clear we have both been wasting our time. Dumping all our problems at my feet will not make you feel better. When I said I loved you and wanted to be with you, I didn't lie. What happened with Adalind was a long time ago, a mistake, clearly my devotion to you these past few months wasn't enough to make that point clear. You accused me of making a fool of you but I realise now that I was the bigger fool, being the subject of your secret talks with the Captain, the man that has made my life a living hell, the same man who tried to kill you because I was getting too close to the truth.

" Aah! I see he neglected to share that peace of information with you. Adalind was the middleman…woman between Renard and Jenkins. The I.A. case was nearing to a close, we'd managed to secure a witness that had tangible proof of his dirty dealings and of corrupting some good cops. He knew I was close to busting him and he went after you to shut me down and I am the bag guy." His voice dripped with visible disappointment.

"Nick…" her voice was low. They were both faced with the brokenness of their life together.

"No, we've said all we needed to say. I'm gonna go. I'll take the overnight bag, I will stay at Monroe's until I can organise something else.

And just like that, Nick Burkhardt and Juliette Silverton were over.