Summary: They're driving back from Monroe and Rosalee's when Trubel asks "Are they human?"
A/N: This is a one-shot from season 3, set right after Trubel first meets Rosalee and Monroe. I haven't seen season 4 yet, so no spoilers please.
As far as I can remember, no one on the show has explicitly states whether Wesen are considered human or not. Nick certainly seems to act like he thinks they are, though. And I was wondering what Trubel think of that, since most of her experiences with Wesen would seem to have been bad ones. So I wrote this as a way of addressing that, I guess?
A Trubel-some Question
They're driving back from Monroe and Rosalee's. That went well, Nick thinks, tapping on the steering wheel to the beat of the song on the radio. Trubel had met her first friendly Wesen, and she hadn't freaked out, and no one had tried to kill anyone else. A great start, in Nick's opinion. He's humming along, feeling his own smile, when Trubel speaks.
"So," she says, over the drumbeat. "Are they, like… human?"
"Huh?" Nick says absently. He's not completely paying attention to girl in the passenger seat. He's hungry. He has work to do. Some car is pulling ahead of his without signaling. He automatically notes the make, model, and license plate number, though the information is useless since he can't arrest someone for an infraction as trivial as not signaling.
Trubel shifts in her seat. "Monroe and Rosalee," she says. "Are they human?"
Nick brakes the car to stare at Trubel. Behind them, a white Buick LeSabre honks angrily. Nick stares at Trubel. He fairly sure he's gaping.
"What?" he says. The Buick honks again. Someone outside yells "HEY!" and a couple more cars join the chorus. Nick realizes he is blocking traffic. He starts driving again, glancing between the road and Trubel as he drives.
"What do you mean, are they human?"
This is not a question Nick has ever asked himself. He tries to remember if he ever equated being Wesen with being inhuman. No, he remembers it clearly. Even at the beginning he had merely classified Wesen as different, humans with a wilder side.
"You know." Trubel stares at him like he's said something truly weird. "Do Wesen count as humans?"
Nick opens his mouth then closes it. They are passing a park on their right side and he pulls up to curb and parks the car. He turns to Trubel. "Why wouldn't they be?" he asks slowly. He's trying to think of Monroe and Rosalee as not-humans, but when he tries to pin them into a category all he can think of is Monroe and Rosalee, like they completely defy classification because everything they are is wrapped up in their names. They're just… Monroe and Rosalee. They're people, his friends. They just... are. He can't wrap his mind around it.
Trubel shrugs. "Well, they, you know, change. Into other things." She looks a bit uncomfortable then leans forward and adds in a lower voice, "And they're dangerous."
"Humans are dangerous, too," Nick says automatically. But suddenly he's not so sure. How many criminals did he arrest before he could see their Wesen faces? At least some of them had to be normal humans, right? But so many things in the books suggest that some of the worst or craziest people in history were Wesen...
No. Not all of the bad guys must be Wesen. The Families, he thinks, and he jumps onto the lifeline and takes hold. "The Royal Families are human," he says. "And the Verrat."
His triumph fades as Trubel just looks confused at him. He remembers that she doesn't know about all that yet.
"They're very bad," he clarifies. "Very dangerous, and very human. I'll tell you about them later." He pauses and remembers the first point of her reasoning. "And just because they woge… it doesn't stop them from being human. They still reason and think like humans, they still follow human laws…" Or at least some of them do. Nick bites his lip. What if Wesen aren't human? He thinks. What if human laws don't apply to them? What would happen then?
He knows what happens when some people are considered less human than others. He's seen the news and read the stories. He knows about genocides and ethnic cleansing. Hell, everyone knows about the Holocaust. His mind tries to placea Rosalee, Monroe, and Bill in that context, and it just doesn't fit. They don't belong there. They belong in Portland, safe and human, where Nick can protect them. And if they are human then other Wesen have to be too. That's just the way it works.
Trubel seems to sense his discomfort. "Okay," she says. She doesn't sound convinced, but she doesn't say any more as Nick restarts the car and drives them home. They park in the driveway and Trubel hops out, as cheerful as she hasn't just shaken Nick's the foundations of worldview. Nick stays in the car.
"You coming?" Trubel seems unsure about going in the house without Nick there. She stands on the front steps, hugging her jacket around her.
Nick shakes his head. "You go inside," he calls to her. "I have work to do." He leaves her on the steps. As he drives away he taps the steering wheel, this time in frustration instead of to music. He feels a little bad about leaving Trubel by herself, but this is important.
He pulls up to the trailer. He has research to do.