Hello all! This is written for the lovely Virgo_79 who posted this prompt over on Dreamwidth:
Clearly, in the middle of winter in Oregon, they can't stay in that house. Especially with Nick just out of the hospital. The obvious solution: Monroe brings them to his house to stay while repairs are done. And by house, I mean bed. And by stay, I mean cuddle naked (Nick's still healing, so that squashes the sex options a bit. But they can still share a bed.)
Okay, so I think I went a little overboard on the prompt lol! This is a slightly AU tag to "Game Ogre" in the way that Juliet and Monroe know each other. There's some slight threesome references toward the end but nothing too extreme. This was more my way of dishing out some epic h/c for Nick from both Monroe and Juliet ^.- Hope you all like it! :D
Monroe feels like the world shudders on its axis when Nick calls him from the hospital. He'd been expecting a call all night, ever since Nick and his partner showed up with the watch, but not like this. Nick's voice is shaky and breathless in a way that has Monroe's teeth on edge like nails scraping down a chalkboard. Nick is hurt. Nick is in the hospital. Nick is calling him for help. He barely hears the words "hospital" and "attacked" before he's grabbing his keys and walking outside to his car.
OOOOO
The bustle of nurses and doctors in the white-washed halls don't make Monroe feel anymore comfortable about being in the hospital. He's never liked them, they make him feel like a prisoner or a lab rat, circling around in a maze with no real control. He feels claustrophobic in spite of the openness of the halls and there's a distinct tingle of discomfort that wiggles its way all the way down to his toes and makes him want to turn around and walk back out to his car. He doesn't because underneath the smell of sickness and pain and despair that always seems to linger around hospitals, he can smell Nick and that forces him to keep his ground and walk down the hallway to the designated room.
Monroe freezes at the edge of the doorway, his eyes falling on the bruised and battered form of the detective. There's bandages wrapping around his torso and shoulder and enough bruises to qualify him as a poster child against domestic abuse. Nick looks like he just took on a prize fighter and lost. Miserably. Monroe's grip on the door frame is tight enough to crack the wood beneath his fingers and he can feel hot, bitter rage boiling in his veins at the sight of the unconscious younger man. He hesitates a second more, catching the attention of the police officers at the edge of the hall. They're watching him carefully, trying to determine if he's a threat and if they should intervene. Monroe considers going over to talk to them personally but the whimper stops him in his tracks.
Nick is dreaming but it's certainly not pleasant. His breathing is fast, panicked in a way, and the monitors next to his bed are beeping shrilling as they keep track of his heart rate and blood pressure. Monroe takes a step into the room, unsure of what to do but feeling he should do something to help Nick. He reaches out, carefully, slowly, fingers closing very gently around the younger man's forearm with just enough pressure to rouse him from his nightmare. Nick comes awake with a gasp, disoriented and confused, and his gaze lands on Monroe after a second. His eyes are unfocused, one eye blinking fractionally slower than the other, a sure sign of a concussion, and Monroe feels the anger wash through him again. He forces himself to keep control for Nick's sake but it's amazingly hard to do.
Nick tells him about the man who attacked him, someone named Oleg, and Monroe comes to the immediate conclusion that it's a Siegbarste. He stares at Nick in disbelief because quite honestly, he's amazed Nick's injuries aren't more severe. Hell, he's amazed Nick is even still alive. Most people tend to walk away from an encounter with a Siegbarste the same way they do from an encounter with a freight train: in a long bloody smear and in several pieces. Nick is extraordinarily lucky even if bruised ribs and concussion beg to differ.
His disbelief continues when Nick tells him he has the one thing on the planet that can take down a Siegbarste in his possession. He actually laughs even though he doesn't mean to and seriously questions the potency of the drugs they're currently dripping into Nick's IV. The sincerity and clarity in Nick's voice makes him stop though and he realizes the younger man is telling the truth. Nick tells him the location of both the Siegbarste Gift and the gun he needs to do the job and Monroe realizes with a shudder that he's giving him the directions to Marie Kessler's trailer.
The blutbad in him is adamantly against going into a trailer owned by a Grimm like Marie Kessler but he can't deny his curiosity either. Its like being handed the keys to the Library of Alexandria or the Vatican and he knows he'd be a fool to turn it down now. Besides, Nick needs him and, seeing as how he's currently incapacitated in a hospital bed, Monroe is the only one he can trust to do what needs to be done.
A nurse stops at the door and quietly tells him visiting hours are over and that he can come back in the morning. Monroe has the sudden urge to growl at her but a glance back at Nick stops the desire at the tip of his tongue. Nick is hanging onto consciousness by a spider's thread and he looks like the only thing keeping him from going under is the fact that Monroe is still in the room. He reaches out again, touching Nick's arm lightly one more time in a gesture of silent understanding, and walks out of the room as the nurse closes the door quietly behind him.
OOOOO
He comes across Juliet on his way back to the front door and she looks lost and frail in the middle of the hospital cafeteria. There's a Styrofoam coffee cup clutched between her fingers but it doesn't hide the fine tremors that are still coursing their way through her. She looks up as Monroe approaches, eyes red-rimmed and swollen from crying, and her walls come down. He's barely at the side of the table before she's on her feet with her arms thrown around his neck, holding onto him tightly and crying into the side of his neck. She trembles with barely contained sobs and he holds her close, shushing her gently and whispering nonsensical words of reassurance. Nick had told him Juliet had been the one to save him and he's so damn proud of her that it almost takes away some of his anger. Almost.
Juliet clings to him for nearly ten minutes before she finally pulls away, scrubbing tears from her face with one hand and hanging onto the plastic chair next to the table with the other. Her hair is tangled and limp from the amount of times she's run her fingers through it during the night and her face is flushed with emotion. She looks like the only thing that kept her from losing her composure all night was the fact that they're in public. Now that Monroe's here though, she doesn't try to hide it.
Monroe knows he should be going to get the gun because Oleg is out there and he's after Hank and there's a very limited window of opportunity to work with but he doesn't think he should leave Juliet alone right now either. Her arms are crossed over her chest like she's cold, a rusty smear of dried blood, Nick's blood, streaking across her white vest. She looks about as uncomfortable as he does about being in the hospital but they both know she doesn't want to leave Nick here by himself. Still, a change of scenery and a change of clothes are probably the best things for her right now and Monroe offers to give her a ride home so she can pack an overnight bag.
Juliet hesitates for a second, a flicker of something akin to fear passing over her eyes for a brief moment. Monroe understands without her saying anything: going back and seeing the house in shambles would make it real. Going back and knowing the attack had happened in their house, that Nick had earned a trip to the ER in the "safety" of their home, was a daunting concept to fathom. Monroe assures her that he'll be there the whole time, that she won't be alone, and finally Juliet offers him a shaky smile and nods. He ushers her to the front door gently and they step out into the cold, clear night.
OOOOO
There's a pack of police cars parked outside of Nick's house when they arrive and every officer on post watches as they make their way up the front steps and into the house. Monroe is nearly floored by the Siegbarste's smell that fills the living room and has to physically rope in the growl that rumbles in his chest. The whole house reeks of ogre and it's a smell somewhere between rotting flesh and decayed wood. There's glass and broken furniture all over the living room and a large puddle of water in the hallway linking to the kitchen. The window in the living room is completely destroyed, torn and tattered curtains rustling gently in the breeze, and the window right next to it is cracked from sill to ceiling. Nick put up one hell of a fight but there's hardly any winning when it comes to Siegbarste; Monroe is pretty sure a professional MMA fighter would go down faster than he could say "Fee Fie Fo Fum" in a one-on-one match with someone like Oleg.
Juliet is standing behind him, rooted to the spot for a second, and he can hear a slight hitch in her breathing. He looks at her and there's tears in her eyes again, clinging to her lashes and trickling down her face. She steps past him, dropping down to one knee and picking up a picture frame from the ground. The glass is shattered, much like all the other glass in the room, and the picture is scratched and cut from the sharp edges of the glass. It's a photo of she and Nick, smiling and happy, and Monroe wonders how long ago it was taken before Nick figured out he was a Grimm and the creatures from the fairy tales started coming after him.
He touches Juliet's shoulder gently and she stands, closing her eyes for a second to regain her composure. She flashes him another watery smile and walks down the hall to the bedroom, disappearing into the darkness and rummaging around for a bag she can bring back up to the hospital.
Once she's out of the room, Monroe allows his own composure to slip just a little bit and the wolf in him snarls to the surface. He's managed to remain remarkably collected throughout most of the evening but now, seeing the destruction left behind in the wake of Nick's attack, he can't be calm anymore. He may be crossing a line by working with Nick but Oleg had pole-vaulted over that line by hurting him. He had attacked Nick and probably would have had no qualms about killing him like a dog in the street had it not been for Juliet. The thought of how close they'd come, both of them, to ending up as bloodstains on the soles of Oleg's shoes was enough to make Monroe physically sick. Oleg would pay, that much was certain; there are some lines you don't cross and get away with it.
Monroe manages to regain control of himself by the time Juliet comes back into the living room, a pink and purple backpack slung over one shoulder. She's changed into a pair of yoga pants and one of Nick's old t-shirts and she looks utterly worn. Her hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail and the redness of her eyes makes it look like she hasn't slept in about two days. She surveys the damage in the living room with a look of utter despair in her eyes.
Monroe reaches out and takes her by the hand, leading her from the room like a frightened child. Juliet follows him wordlessly and the two of them slide back into the car and take off back toward the hospital. There will be plenty of time to repair everything and everyone that has been broken later but for now he needs to get to Marie's trailer and get the gun to stop Oleg. He has a vendetta to settle and Oleg is at the top of the list.
He drops Juliet off at the entrance of the hospital and promises he'll be back as soon as he can, he just needs to check on something at home first. Juliet doesn't believe him, he can see it in her eyes, but she also doesn't try to stop him. She knows he's not going home and she doesn't ask him to tell the truth, she just tells him to be careful and there's a finality in her voice that sounds like a razor blade. They both know where he's going, who he's going to find, and it's a silent understanding that both of them agree on. Monroe simply nods and tells her he'll be back in a few hours before driving away into the night, the directions to Marie Kessler's trailer fluttering lightly in the passenger seat.
OOOOO
Two hours later, Oleg is dead, the gun is back in the trailer, and Monroe is on his way back to the hospital. He calls Nick, instantly feeling guilty at the groggy, confused voice that answers the phone, but he needs to tell him Oleg is gone. He needs to tell him that he and Juliet are safe and that nothing is going to happen to them under his watch. He tells him he took care of it and that Hank is safe and leaves it at that. There's no need to get into the details right now, he'll fill him in later if he wants the specifics but for now, Nick knows Oleg is dead.
It's late when he pulls back into the hospital parking lot, the clock on his dashboard settling just a few minutes shy of 3 am. The air feels heavy and damp this late at night but Monroe hardly notices, the adrenaline is still flooding his system and keeping him on edge. He walks up the front doors and steps into the stark white halls again, no longer feeling claustrophobic like he had earlier.
He finds Juliet in the waiting room, knees drawn up to her chest and wordlessly watching an infomercial offering a CD collection filled with the greatest hits of the 70's. Monroe mentally notes that most of the singers shown on the commercial look like old porn stars but he keeps that to himself. Juliet looks up at him as he approaches, her eyes flickering over him quickly as if doing a visual check for any hidden injuries. Monroe sits down beside her and he wonders if she can smell the gun powder on his clothes like he can.
She doesn't say anything, doesn't ask him if his "house" has been taken care of, because the look on his face tells her everything she needs to know. Monroe nods almost imperceptibly and Juliet returns the gesture. Monroe took care of it, he made sure Oleg wouldn't be coming back. They sit quietly for several minutes, listening to the commercial as it continues to offer them the CD collection at a value price.
There aren't many people in the waiting room with them, one woman who's reading a book quietly in the corner and an older man with a cane sitting by the door. A nurse wanders in after a while and grabs a clip board from a hanging folder on the wall and walks out as quietly as she'd come. Monroe is watching all of this from the corner of his eye, still too hyped up to be tired but realizing he can't do anything about it. He figures if he sits still long enough the adrenaline will wear off and he'll be able to resist the urge to climb the walls with both feet.
He's not sure how long he sits there before he feels Juliet's head bump against his shoulder. She startles awake, apologizing softly, and readjusts herself in the chair. The chairs in the waiting room aren't terrible but they're certainly not comfortable and he knows she's going to have a brutal crick in her neck if she tries to sleep in it the way she had been. He slips his jacket off and folds it carefully, laying it across his lap and giving her an offering look.
Juliet smiles tiredly and relents, slumping sideways across the stiff foam and fabric chairs and laying her head in Monroe's lap. She thanks him quietly, her whispered voice sounding loud and intrusive in the late night silence of the hospital. Monroe doesn't mind; he smiles softly and nods, leaning back against his own chair and forcing himself to sit still so Juliet can sleep. She's out within minutes, her breathing slow and even, and he finds himself sweeping his fingers through her long auburn hair lightly the way his mother had done when he was a child. It's quiet and still and Monroe feels himself relax for the first time that night.
OOOOO
Nick is released to them the next morning with order for strict bed rest and a follow up check-up at the end of the week. The doctor hands Juliet a prescription for heavy pain killers and she tucks it in her purse with a nod. Nick is rolled to the door in a wheel chair per hospital procedure and even though he's conscious, he looks like a good breeze is the only thing it would take to knock him on his ass. Juliet opens the door and Monroe manages to get an arm around Nick without jostling his injuries and helps ease him into the back seat of the car. Nick tries his hardest to keep the muffled groans of pain to himself but Monroe catches them anyway. His touch lingers just a bit longer than necessary and Nick smiles behind the bruises.
Monroe doesn't hesitate to offer his house as temporary living arrangements for the two of them. Juliet had told him the night before that Nick's captain, someone named Renard, was going to take care of the repairs and that the windows should be fixed within a few days. Still, it's the middle of winter in the middle of Oregon and Nick has just been released from the hospital…neither Monroe nor Juliet are too eager to send him back to a house with a huge hole in one side of it.
Juliet follows them in her car, helping Monroe get Nick inside and settled on the couch before turning around and heading back to their house to get more clothes for the two of them. Monroe is worried about her going back alone but she assures him she'll be alright. She looks stronger today, less fragile, and he lets her go without question. She tells him that if she's not back within an hour, he can call out the search party. Monroe laughs but it feels hollow and forced in his chest. He's not too keen on having either of them out of his sight at the moment but he knows he can't leave Nick alone either. He watches Juliet pull out of the driveway and disappear down the street, making a mental note of the time she left before walking back inside and tending to Nick.
The younger man is drowsy and dazed from the amount of pain killers he's on but he wants Monroe to tell him about the night before. Monroe makes them both some chamomile tea, knowing it'll probably knock Nick out in a heartbeat, and settles back down on the couch next to him. He tells him about the gun and the bullets and the shot he waited to take. He leaves out the part about Hank nearly being crushed to death by a rock because Nick probably doesn't need to know that. Sure enough, just as he suspected, Nick is barely awake by the time he finishes his story and the tea cup is about to fall from his limp fingers. Monroe catches the cup before it can tumble to the floor and grabs the throw from the back end of the couch, draping it across Nick's bruised chest before taking the cups back to the kitchen.
Juliet returns about twenty minutes later, her pink and purple backpack much larger and heavier than it had been the night before. She accepts the tea Monroe offers her gratefully and they both wander back into the living room, neither of them wanting to be too far away from Nick in case he wakes up.
Nick is sprawled across the couch awkwardly but he's sound asleep and neither of them have the heart to wake him. Monroe finds a pillow at the end of the couch and manages to tuck it under his head while Juliet smoothes the blanket spread across his chest. She presses a kiss to his temple, very careful of the extensive bruising mottling his face, and sits in the open chair across from him.
Monroe and Juliet sit in the living room for most of the rest of the afternoon, watching old movies and talking quietly. Nick rouses a few times but he's only able to stay conscious for a couple minutes at a time before the combination of pain killers and injury draw him under again. Juliet coaxes him awake a few times to feed him another dose of pain killers and Monroe manages to get him to drink some more tea but Nick is mostly incoherent through each rousing.
Juliet takes control of the kitchen later that evening and busies herself making French onion soup while Monroe scoops Nick off the couch and helps him down the hall to the bathroom. He helps him undress and gets him into the shower and waits just outside the door until the faucet turns off. Nick is clinging to the edge of the sink, a towel wrapped loosely around his waist, and he looks sufficiently embarrassed about needing help getting dressed. Monroe just smiles and helps Nick into a fresh change of clothes; he'll give him a hard time about it later when Nick doesn't look like he's going to pass out on the bathroom floor. The bruises are still ugly and vivid but Nick looks much better now that he's clean and not hooked up to an IV.
Juliet has the table set by the time they get out and she walks over and helps Monroe get Nick into an open chair close to the door. Nick looks more conscious than he has all day but they're not sure how long that will last so it's a bit of a race against time to get him to eat something before he ends up face down in the bowl. Nick eats just enough to make both Juliet and Monroe satisfied and its easy to see he's not going to be up for much longer. He starts to sway and Monroe catches him easily, carefully pulling him out of the chair and leading him back into the living room. Juliet follows him and together they ease Nick back onto the couch, tucking the blanket around him, and within minutes he's asleep again.
Juliet and Monroe finish their dinner and he helps her clean up the kitchen and put away the leftovers. It all feels so domestic and normal that Monroe feels like he's fallen into a bizarre Pleasantville universe and there's no way out. He doesn't necessarily mind though, its kind of nice sharing the house with something other than his clocks.
They end up back in the living room and watch the last two hours of Gone with the Wind while trying to settle on a mental illness to diagnose Scarlett O'Hara with. Juliet insists on a combination of OCD and self-image issues, Monroe just settles on perpetual brattiness. They'd managed to both get on the couch with Nick even though he's still sound asleep. Nick's head is resting in Juliet's lap and his legs are propped in Monroe's and he's completely oblivious to the psychological evaluations going on above his head.
It's nearly midnight by the time the movie finishes and Juliet looks like she's about five minutes away from following Nick's descent into sleep. Monroe turns off the TV and the two of them get up, a collective effort to drag Nick's sleep-limp body with them. Nick wakes up just enough to stumble into the bedroom with them but the few steps it takes to get down the hall leave him winded and dizzy and he nearly collapses onto the mattress when they let go of him. He shivers from the change in air temperature and the involuntary movement makes him wince.
Juliet strips down to a tank top and underwear and slides onto the bed beside Nick. He's stiff and sore but she wraps her arms around him gently to ease the shivers that are still quivering their way through his body. Monroe takes off his own clothes and settles down on the other side of Nick, pulling the heavy quilt up onto the bed and covering the three of them. He's curled up against Nick's back, very aware of the injuries hidden beneath the linens, and Juliet is in front of him, her fingers stroking through his still-damp hair slowly. Nick's shivering dies down and he relaxes between the two of them, his breathing evening out as he falls asleep again.
Juliet falls asleep about thirty minutes later, her fingers still tangled through Nick's hair and one hand resting on Monroe's forearm. It isn't the first time they've all piled on the bed together like a cluster of puppies but this time its different. They're wrapped around Nick protectively, physically shielding his body with their own, and Monroe is angry that its come to this. He finds it hard to fall asleep and lays awake, staring at the shadow blotted ceiling for a long time.
Juliet jerks awake twice during the night, Nick's name on her lips and a breathy gasp escaping her before she can stop it. She's disoriented for a split second before she remembers they're at Monroe's house and Nick is safe in their arms. Monroe watches her carefully, asking if she's alright in a hushed voice, and each time she nods with a meek smile before laying back down and trying to go back to sleep. Monroe doesn't have ask what her nightmares are about because he's trapped inside of his own even though he's laying wide awake.
He knows Juliet is the reason Nick is still alive, had she not come in when she did Oleg would have torn him limb from limb. Knowing that makes the "what if's" that much worse: what if she'd gotten home later? What if she'd been too late? What if Oleg turned on her and killed both of them? The thoughts swirl through his head for hours and he finds no relief in sleep because then the thoughts turn into dreams and they're vivid and terrible and real. He wraps his arms around Nick and Juliet a little more tightly because it assures him that they're both here and safe.
Oleg had been a wake up call for all of them. Until then, most of the Grimm creatures Nick had encountered had been talked down before the violence stage could be reached. Monroe knew as well as anyone that most creatures wanted nothing more than Nick's head on a plate but he'd been foolish enough to believe that maybe Nick had all of this under control and that he was overreacting. Then Nick had landed himself in the hospital and that fragile illusion had been shattered. Nick had been incredibly lucky and Monroe isn't too keen on the idea of pushing that luck until it runs out. Seeing Nick beaten and bruised in that hospital bed had scared the hell out of him and it all became very real.
It may sound cliché but Monroe had vowed then and there to become Nick's personal guard dog if it came down to it because the younger man was too oblivious to realize the kind of danger he'd unwilling walked in to. The next attack may be the one Nick doesn't walk away from and Monroe refuses to let that happen. He settles himself to protecting both of them until his dying breath because anything less is unacceptable. It's nearly dawn before Monroe finally feels relaxed enough to sleep and the only reason that happens is because Nick and Juliet are still safe and warm and alive in his arms and he will do everything he possibly can to keep it that way.
Hope you guys liked it! :D