An: Thank you for all the reviews and follows. They make my day and let me know whether you're enjoying this or not.
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They're alone for a few minutes. They're two hours down the road, but given the winding, twisting two lane, she doesn't think they put away much in the way of distance. The drive is making her crazy, patches of remote, isolated hills, pockmarked by civilization, and every time they come into a group of buildings she tenses, wondering if this will be the place they get caught. Pulled over by some backwoods, diligent deputy that has studied their BOLO and can hardly believe his good fortune in making the bust that will undoubtedly make his career.
They've had to stop to tend to Kelly, and Diana's using the facilities again in a remote, sparse, way-station after Nick's recommendation, leaving Adalind to believe he has an idea of where they're going, and that it will be a while before they'll stop again.
"Are you ever going to share with me where the hell we're going?" She asks him sharply, watching the restroom Diana went in. Nick's in the driver's seat beside her, perusing the paper he picked up earlier, after tending to his own needs.
"We're going to head further into the mountains on 93 and come out on the Montana side."
"Do you have any idea where we are?" she asks him, since he seemed to her to be driving fairly aimlessly.
"Yeah, we're still in Idaho." Well that's specific, she thinks. She has no idea where.
"I'm surprised you're not booking it to New York, or Mexico or Canada or something. Why Montana?"
"He'll be expecting us to try to get as far away as possible if he can't find us in the city. Once he rules Portland out he'll start searching the borders, if he's not already. His influence is still largely confined to Portland for the time being, so he'll think that we tried to get far away. That will buy us some time. He'll be looking at places where he thinks we might have friends, former cities we've been affiliated with."
Adalind's lived most of her life in Portland, but she attended law school in San Francisco, and worked at a firm in Seattle, but there's no one there in either place that she would trust to give refuge to a Grimm, her hexenbiest self, and her two children. Nick's lived a largely nomadic life, and if Sean's going to look at his past for likely places to hide, then he's going to be searching a while. Portland's been his longest stop, besides the twelve years he spent growing up in New York. Likely Sean would start there. He'd be well aware that Adalind's friends would be few and far between, so much so as to be non-existent. Her only real friends like that were Nick's friends. Rosalee. Trubel. Bud. She looks away, feeling a rush of emotion at the way she lived her life before Nick, and wonders again if they have any idea what's going on.
Still, she was always good at manipulating someone, and if the situation calls for it, if it means keeping Nick and her children safe, she won't hesitate to do it. Finding someplace remote but relativity close will eliminate the risk, too, of being caught on the road by some deputy sheriff or state trooper alerted by a BOLO.
"His influence won't be confined to Portland for long, especially if other Wesen get wind of what he's proposing."
"I know, but it will still take him some time to amass enough power outside of Portland, but he doesn't need it if he has a warrant out for my arrest for murder and kidnapping and whatever other charges he can think up, and my picture posted everywhere."
"So, do you have someplace specific in mind in Montana, or are we just going to wind up every mountain road we come along until we run out of gas and money?" Nick slides his gaze to her for a second.
"There's a place called Whitefish. I'm thinking somewhere near there."
"Okay. Why Whitefish?"
"It's fairly remote, but there's a ski resort nearby I think I might be able to find some work. During the summer months, it's quiet, but during the winter it's pretty bustling."
"How do you know?"
"When my aunt was alive, one of the places we lived was in Idaho for a short time. I went to Whitefish a couple of times with friends. I used to know a guy whose mom worked there. It's a nice place, and they're looking to beef up staff for the season," Nick says, opening the paper to the classifieds. He taps his finger on a large help-wanted ad.
"Are we on the cover?" Adalind asks, taking the paper from him and reading.
"Very funny," Nick says distractedly. "We're going to need money sooner rather than later. We still need to ditch the car, and stealing one's not an option. We don't need any more reason for law enforcement to be looking for us."
"There's a fish and game warden position open," Adalind reads, looking through the rest of the classifieds. "Why don't you try for that? That's more in your wheelhouse, isn't it?
"I'm trying to keep a low profile," Nick reminds her.
"Good luck with that. The pay's pretty good," she continues, reading.
"Forget it. I'm pretty sure I can get a job at Whitefish without too much scrutiny, and right now we need as few eyes on us as possible."
"There's paid time off and health insurance included, too," Adalind reads, ignoring him and Nick gives her a look. "With two children, we might need it."
"How do you propose I get this job? I can't very well go in as myself. They'll arrest me as soon as they realize who I am. They do a background check for that," Nick points out. "I have a better chance of getting a job at the resort than fish and wildlife."
"I could help you with that," Adalind says.
"How? We're going to have to ditch our identities," Nick goes on. "You know that, right? Everyone and their mother will be looking for a Nick Burkhardt and an Adalind Schade matching our descriptions."
"I know," she says. "You're right. We're gonna need some fake IDs, papers. Rosalee might be able to get us some?"
"Forget about that. Renard will be watching them for any sign of us. It's safer for them if we don't involve them at all. No contact, nothing."
"Do they have any idea where you were planning to go?"
"No. They don't have any idea I even left Portland."
"Nick," Adalind says softly and Nick looks down at the paper, brows scrunching.
"It's better that way. We can't make a break with ties to them, and they can't move on with their lives either if there's any hint of collusion with me. For this to work, we have to make sure we have no contact whatsoever. So, the fakes and Rosalee are out."
Adalind nods, and twists her mouth.
"I might be able to help you with that, then."
She looks up to find Nick raising an eyebrow in surprise.
"What? Fake IDs?"
"What? I know some people," she says, shrugging.
"What people?"
"People," Adalind says, looking back down at the paper.
"In Montana?" he asks incredulously.
"No, Seattle," she says and Nick sits back, considering.
"Wesen?" She shrugs and nods.
"I can be very persuasive," she reminds him coyly, and the other eyebrow joins its sibling, but the surprise on his face is gone, and an expression more like reluctant amusement has taken its place.
"We have to be very careful," Nick warns. "I don't want anything to happen to you or Kelly and Diana. I don't think we should involve other people."
"I don't want anything to happen, either," Adalind tells him seriously, "But I think we're going to have to involve someone. We can't get the type of documents we need – the quality of documents we need – without a little help. I can't make fakes that are going to pass muster. You're good at a lot of things, but I don't think you can either."
Nick stares at her for a long moment.
"You trust this person?" he asks.
"No," Adalind retorts, and Nick rolls his head back against the head rest in frustration. "That doesn't mean he won't do it."
"How do you know he won't say anything?"
"He won't," Adalind says. "I know a spell," she ventures, and Nick snorts. "He won't be able to say anything."
"Wonderful," Nick says.
"Well, what do you suggest we do? Kill him?"
Nick says nothing, and Adalind looks up at him in surprise. She gets the feeling Nick would be all right with that scenario, and it's a testament to how far gone Nick is from upright, uptight detective she met all those years ago.
"What's taking her so long?" Nick asks, looking at the building in front of them and Adalind's attention returns to why they're stopped. Diana.
"I'll check on her," Adalind says, a frisson of fear sliding through her. She didn't realize so much time has passed, but she doesn't know why it's taking so long either. There was only one window, narrow and high up and she doesn't think Diana could even reach it, much less fit through it. And even if she could, where would she even go, and why?
She seems keen on staying with Adalind, but maybe something happened, maybe some consequence of taking off the ring that is finally surfacing. She hurriedly unbuckles her belt and slips out of the car. She stops short when another car pulls in beside them, and she registers Nick stiffening in the seat as he slowly unbuckles his belt, too, studying the vehicle and its occupants with his cop eyes and his mouth sets in a grim line and Adalind's fear ratchets up a notch.
She can't hesitate too long, every strange movement she makes could draw suspicion, so she offers a polite, if strained smile, and continues onto where she last saw Diana. She registers Nick step out of the vehicle, acting as though he's just getting out to stretch his legs.
"Hello," a man says, and Adalind glances behind her and she can tell, even without seeing the embroidered shield on a polo shirt, that the man who offered the greeting is some kind of cop. Like Nick, he just has that stance about him, the way he views his world, and Nick smiles congenially in response, hands loose at his sides.
"This your car?" she hears and now she's not sure what she should do. Continue after her daughter or stay here and help Nick with whatever he's preparing to do. Kelly's in the car, a fact Nick is surely aware of, so he'll be careful to keep the possibility of violence to a minimum.
"Yes sir," Nick says. "Why?"
"That your wife?" the officer says and Adalind freezes.
"Is everything okay?" she calls back, trying to affect a concerned, innocent expression, but her nerves are on fire, and she needs to get to her daughter, make sure she's okay, and she needs to make sure Nick and Kelly stays okay.
"I was going to tell you that your plate is covered with mud," he says and Nick cocks his head. "You can't hardly read it," the cop continues.
That's by design. When Nick took it off the truck at the motel it was covered in dust, but by the time he put it on his truck it had a nice fresh coating of dirt and mud over most of it. Only a couple of portions of the characters are even remotely visible, and most isn't enough to determine what it is.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't pay any attention to it," Nick says.
"You need to get it cleaned off," and Nick nods in agreement.
"Sure thing," he says. "We'll get it cleaned off right away."
The officer nods as he starts walking away, looking over Nick's car and Adalind tenses. "I've got a towel in the trunk," The cop offers.
"That's okay, I think we've got a rag or something we can use," Nick says easily and the cop flicks his eyes to Nick and then back to the car and then Adalind.
"You folks headed up to Flathead Lake?"
"Rapid City, actually. My wife has family there," Nick says, and though he says it with practiced ease, it still takes most of Adalind's concentration not to react to it. My wife.She wonders what that would be like, to be Nick's wife. To be married to Nick, but this isn't the time to ruminate on some girlish fantasy, and his life is hardly a fairy tale dream come true, anyway. The cop is still looking over Nick's car, and Adalind wonders what is holding his interest so. Does he recognize it as fitting the description of one described in a BOLO about them?
"Here, let me help you," the cop says, popping his trunk and Nick's mouth does a funny twist before it levels out into a small smile. "Won't take but a minute," the cop continues, pulling a grease smudged towel out of his trunk and kneeling down by the bumper.
"Some of this is really caked on there," the cop remarks, scrubbing at it and Nick shifts and takes a few steps towards the back of his vehicle, and Adalind wonders what he's thinking. It's still possible that this all turns out okay, that it's merely a well-meaning officer who will help them get back in compliance with their vehicle and let them be on their way, maybe never even realizing that he had encountered fugitives.
"What's the matter, mommy?"
Adalind whirls in relief to see Diana standing behind her, watching the scene unfold curiously.
"Uh, nothing. Nothing, sweetheart, this nice young officer is just helping us and then we'll be on our way."
Diana's appearance has attracted everyone's attention. Nick looks over his shoulder at her, checking her over carefully, before determining she must be okay and turning his attention back to the cop who is also looking her over. He has a strange expression on his face and Adalind's getting a sinking feeling in her stomach.
"Hello," the cop calls and Diana merely looks at him. "Shouldn't you be in school, sweetheart?"
"She's homeschooled, actually," Nick says and the cop flicks his eyes to him, and Adalind's chest constricts painfully. They've aroused his interest, and that can't be good.
"Miss, can you and the girl come down here for a sec?" Adalind's heart feels like it's going to beat out of her chest. She doesn't dare look now towards Diana or Nick, but it takes every ounce of willpower to turn and start trudging back down the path she came.
"Sure, is there a problem?" Adalind says, finally chancing a casually confused look at Nick, but he's looking at the cop, trying to gauge his opportunity.
"Stand right there," The cop says, pointing to a spot by his car. Diana follows, and moves to stand beside her, looking between the adults.
"Sweetheart, why don't you go get back into the car," Adalind says to her and the cop shakes his head.
"Actually, why don't you come down here. Miss?" the cop says, wiggling two fingers in a come here gesture at Diana.
"Is something the matter, deputy?" Nick asks, and now that Adalind's up close she can see that the embroidered shield is that for a county sheriff's deputy.
"You, stand there," the deputy says pointing to Nick, when he shifts slightly, and Nick frowns.
"What's going on?" Adalind asks, forcing herself to keep her eyes forward on Nick and the cop, and not back where she hopes Diana is still behind her.
"You look just like a BOLO that came through this afternoon of a missing girl, believed to be traveling with a woman assumed to be her mother, and another small child." He glances at Nick, expression no longer friendly. "It mentioned a man traveling with them, kind of matches your description," he says to Nick, and Nick smiles and scoffs lightly.
"A BOLO?" Adalind laughs, trying to keep the man's attention focused on her, and not on Nick. "Like one of those wanted posters, or something? That's ridiculous."
"You got any ID on you?" the cop asks.
Nick smiles and says, "Sure, I think I left my wallet in the truck. He turns, eyes meeting Adalind's for a second.
"Stay right there," the cop says, and looks to Adalind.
"You?" he asks her.
"Yeah, of course, in my purse." He looks at her, noting she's not wearing a purse on her shoulder.
"Let me guess, also in the truck."
"Yeah, we were just stopping to use the restroom," Adalind says. The cop looks at Nick again scrutinizing him.
"Stand over here, sir," he directs, pointing at his cop car. "Put your hands on the vehicle."
"What? Why?" Nick asks, stalling.
"Sir, put your hands on the vehicle."
"You really think I'm this guy from your poster?" Nick continues, turning slow, buying time, gauging his opening.
Adalind takes a couple of steps closer to Nick.
"Miss. Stop right there," the cop says to her, close enough to Nick now he's almost got his hands on him. Just as he does, Nick makes his move, spinning rapidly and managing to throw his elbow back. The cop woges, revealing the ugly face of a Furis Rubian. The cop reaches for his gun, and Adalind yanks it away with a flick of her arm, and he course corrects with a vicious kick at Nick's knee. Nick collapses, catching himself before he falls face first into the pavement. The Rubian makes a noise but before he can do much further his faces presses in, so much so that it starts caving in on itself. It's as though it's trapped between a vice. Blood spurts from his eyes and a clear fluid begins leaking out of his nose and ears. More blood drains out his mouth, bubbling up as he gasps painfully, before there's a crack of bone breaking, crushing, and rush of fluids escaping in its wake.
The cop falls limply to the ground and Nick stares at the scene before him wordlessly. He raises stunned eyes to Adalind's face, before registering her own horrified expression and his eyes slide behind her.
Diana lowers her arm and meets Nick's eyes.
He eyes her carefully for a long moment, clearly choosing his words.
Shit. Shit, shit, shitshitshitshit! Adalind thinks. She hasn't had a chance really to talk to Nick, explain the whole thing with Rachel. And find out more about how she influenced Bonaparte's demise. Her daughter is racking up a body count like most girls rack up charges on a phone bill. She's killed three people in as many weeks.
"I didn't like him," Diana says in a high, thin, little girls voice, and the juxtaposition of what she is versus what she's just done is mind-bending. "He tried to hurt you."
And Nick nods in agreement after a moment.
"I didn't want Mommy to be sad."
I would be devastated if something happened to him.
Adalind's eyes flick to her daughter, and Nick's eyes flick Adalind's.
"You saved me. Thank you," he says, surveying the mess around him. He looks up at Adalind and Adalind looks down at the ground after a moment, too.
A cop is dead.
She looks at the car, an unmarked Dodge Durango, but still, she can see all the latest equipment in it, and wonders if he radioed in that was stopping to notify a driver that his plate was obscured. He would have radioed in a description of the vehicle, and now they really need to offload Nick's car somewhere, and soon. She's extremely grateful that Nick made sure to cover up the license because every cop who wasn't already looking for them in Idaho will be now with a new body, and that of a law enforcement officer.
Their lives, already ridiculously complicated, have become even more so.
She looks at all the evidence they're going to have to dispose of and cover up and wonders where to even start.
"There's a tarp in the back of the truck. Get it," Nick says, obviously not as frozen with indecision as she is. She shivers and realizes she hasn't put on her coat. The wind is still gusting and the clouds in the sky make her think snow's getting ready to fall.
"Adalind," Nick snaps, and she pulls her eyes away from the sky and moves to where he indicated. She opens the back of the Land Cruiser and hears Kelly babble.
"Diana," she says, realizing her daughter is watching them curiously, "why don't you get in the car and keep an eye on your brother."
"Okay," she agrees and Adalind makes sure she's in the car before she looks back at Nick.
"Spread it out," he instructs, grabbing an end that flaps in the wind as she unfolds it. She realizes his intent. He's going to roll the body onto the tarp and then roll the tarp up around it. They work quietly and quickly, Nick glancing over his shoulder at the road behind him and Adalind looks, too. Nick's SUV blocks some of the view, but there's a good chance anyone else travelling could stop here, at any time. The road has been sporadic at times with traffic, and they're traveling at a time of day where they're easily visible to the naked eye.
"Here. Pop the trunk," Nick says, handing the cop's keys to Adalind, and she hurries to comply, fumbling with the keys for a moment and then raising the hatch.
"Grab his legs," Nick says, voice straining with the dead weight as he loops his arms under and around the cops and props him up, and Adalind hurries back, looking at the body, wrapped tightly in the tarp and she can't help but think of Sean's campaign manager, looking much the same. They dump him unceremoniously in the back of the vehicle, and Nick looks around at the ground where they moved the body.
He grabs a container of gasoline from the trunk of the cop's car and pours some on the pavement, the gas and the blood and other matter mixing slowly. If he was expecting it to wash away the evidence, he's sorely disappointed.
"Here, take my keys," he says, holding them out. "Get into the truck and head east."
"What are you going to do with all this?" Adalind asks him, indicating the car and the body. "I'll follow behind in the car and catch up with you. We're going to have to find some place to dump it," he says, looking back at the car. He looks down at the mess at his feet.
"What about this?" she asks, looking down, too.
"I'll take care of it." He says cryptically, and she looks up at Nick.
"Nick," she says, glancing into Nick's truck where Diana is watching them closely.
"Go, we don't have a lot of time. Anyone can come along here at any time, and we need to be on the road and over the state line by nightfall. The roads are likely to get bad," he adds, looking above him. "Snow this time of year is pretty significant, especially up in the mountains. We'll probably have to find someplace to spend the night," he says with a sigh.
The longer they linger, the likelier it is that someone will discover them. There's still the matter of getting rid of Nick's car, and it seems imperative now more than ever that they do that as soon as possible.
Nick holds the door open for her and Adalind steps carefully around the mess at her feet and slides in.
"I'll be right behind you," he promises, and she nods. She sticks the key in the ignition and starts his truck, pulling out of the parking spot slowly. Her last view of Nick is in his review mirror, his dark head bent as he pulls a fire extinguisher from the trunk and walks back to the mess from the cop. She catches Diana's eye and tries for a smile, but she's stretched thin and she can't make her mouth work quite right.
"Is Nick not coming with us?" Diana asks as Adalind glances at Kelly in the rearview. He's awake and alert.
"He'll be right behind us in a moment," Adalind says. She has no idea where she's going. Nick said Whitefish, but she has no idea where that's at, other than Montana. She has no idea if they're even heading east, but she went in the direction Nick pointed and now she's trying not to show how worried she is that Nick's not with them. She doesn't have her phone or GPS, and she has no idea if Nick even has a map in his car. She's worried that someone might come along and see Nick trying to dispose of evidence and something happening to him. He's hardly helpless, she reminds herself. It's pretty damn hard to kill a Grimm.
And yet, it can be so easy.
"Diana," she says, clearing her throat. "I know you were trying to help Nick, but you shouldn't have done that."
"Are you mad, mommy? You said you would be sad if something happened to Nick and that man wasn't very nice to him. I didn't want to see you sad."
"I'm not mad, sweetheart, I… I'm grateful that you wanted to keep him safe." So grateful, she thinks, hoping that maybe she won't have to worry about Diana takes Nick being a part of their lives. "I… just… it's like what we talked about. You can't use your powers like that in public."
"You used yours," Diana points out, staring at her mother in the mirror. Adalind swallows.
"Yes, but, I—I—I'm an adult, and sometimes there's consequences that you don't fully grasp when you're young," and she thinks about all the wrong decisions she's made over the years, all the bad ones, motivated by noble reasons, and bad reasons, that only made life more complicated. Of course, the seemingly biggest bad decision led a winding and difficult road to her greatest loves, Diana, Kelly, and Nick.
"Just because you have the means doesn't always mean you should exercise the right. You have to be careful," she advises, still looking for Nick. It's hard to argue this point when Diana probably did save Nick's life. She, at the very least, saved him from incarceration. She's reminded, though, of how difficult it's going to be to make this work. To make Diana seem like every other child when she's so clearly not. Being away from Sean, being with Nick, should help her construct a better environment for Diana, and Kelly, to grow up in. To understand how and when you should use your powers. To be a better Hexenbiest than Adalind was, growing up under the tutelage of her selfish mother.
She breathes a sigh when she finally sees Nick behind them a few more miles down the road. He zooms up close behind her, flashes the lights once, and then, when she slows, he moves around her, waving his hand for her to follow.
She does, for another fifteen or so miles she estimates, keeping a sedate distance behind, nerves stretched taught, wondering what they're going to do about the dead cop and his car, when Nick slows dramatically and executes a sharp turn to the right. It's practically a cow path, and Adalind winces with every stiff jostle of the vehicle as she follows Nick deeper and deeper into the woods, climbing and then descending sharply, so much so it scares her. She wonders how the hell they're going to get up this hill to get back to the road. The path is so narrow there's no place to turn around, and she finally stops, watching Nick's car—the cop's car-disappear further into the trees ahead of her.
"What are we doing?" Diana asks, and Adalind shakes her head. "You guys stay here, okay. Don't go anywhere."
Not that there's anywhere to go, and Kelly is asleep, she notes gratefully, oblivious to the insanity going on around him.
"Okay," Diana says.
"I'll be right back."
It's freezing. She's still not wearing a coat, and she shivers and tells herself to get moving.
They have to hurry, she thinks. If it starts snowing they'll never get up the hill they just descended and she can't imagine being trapped here. They're so deep into the woods it would be weeks before someone would even think to look this way. Great to hide the one body they need to. She doesn't want to add four more to it. She quickens her pace, glancing back at the truck holding her children and slips a little on the rocky mud and focuses her attention forward again, and on finding Nick.
She finds him probably another three-quarter mile down the hill, still descending, and she's glad she didn't follow him all the way down with the Land Cruiser. He's messing about with the car and his head whips up sharply the moment she comes into view.
"It's me," she says unnecessarily, because who else could it be?
"Anyone behind you when you turned?" he asks.
"No. There hasn't been anyone behind me in miles." Nick was the last one. "What are you doing?"
"Just making sure the car's wiped down," Nick said and she can see he has the same dirty cloth the cop gave him to clean off the license plate in his hand. She can see splatter of the dirt from the plate, and blood, and Adalind's eyes trail from it, to Nick, who's also splattered in a few drops of blood.
"Nick, your shirt," she says, and looks down at hers, but she wasn't standing as close to the cop as Nick was, and Nick looks down and frowns. "I'll have to lose it somewhere," he says and he looks out over the hood, in front of him, and for the first time Adalind registers the sound of running water. She steps forward, walking in front of the cop's car and spots a small brook another fifty feet down a steep embankment and she realizes what Nick has in mind.
"You think anybody will find him?" she asks. There will be lots of people looking, she knows. Killing a cop. A lot of resources will be dedicated to finding the person responsible.
"Doubtful. Not for a while, anyway," Nick says. "I don't plan to be anywhere near here when they do."
She nods and shivers again, not sure if she's more bothered by the cold than what they are getting ready to do. Nick's arguably taken more lives than she has, but she can remember a time when she wasn't so bothered by something like this and wishes it wasn't bothering like this now.
"She saved your life," she says, inviting the conversation that she's been dreading since this began, trying to put a positive spin on what happened, because what other positive could there be for a prepubescent child who's committed murder. "Twice," she adds, because there's a void of sound after she says it and she has to fill it with something. Nick looks at her, nodding once slightly.
"She's more powerful than I expected," Nick says, finally, and Adalind's not sure what that means. If he means it as it appears, or if there's something deeper in it that he's not saying.
"It's dangerous. She's dangerous," and there, he's said it.
He's fearful of her daughter.
She's fearful of her daughter. She's scared to admonish Diana too harshly or there might be consequences for her, or Nick, or even Kelly.
"She doesn't understand what she's doing," Adalind argues, "she's a child. She's emotional," and there's not much solace in that.
"That makes her even more dangerous. And unpredictable," he counters. "My mother always thought it was best for Diana to be raised as normally as possible, given her powers," Nick says.
"Well, the best way to handle it is to make sure she's surrounded by the right kind of people," Adalind says, looking at Nick, "make sure she has positive examples to go by, and that the people who are around her love her and want the best for her," she continues, hoping that Nick is willing to take that burden on, like he has so many others.
Would they even be here if he didn't? She tries to console herself, but she knows there's a lot of information now that Nick didn't have before, and he has to be second guessing this idea of his at every turn, because Adalind sure as hell is.
Still, he was never the type to scare easy.
"We're going to have to keep a close eye on her," Nick says, nodding, and she breathes a sigh of relief at the word. We're. He glances up above him, and Adalind realizes snow has started to fall, a few tiny, heavy wisps.
"She likes you," Adalind adds, because she can't explain the need to explain that her daughter is impetuous, but she's a good person who's just been under some bad influences as of late, and has no real concept of the power she wields and what it can do.
"That's probably a good thing," Nick says, and Adalind meets his eyes. "I wonder if she'll like me so much if she understands I'm the reason we'll probably never see her father again."
"She's okay with it, as long as she's with me," Adalind insists and she hopes it true. She's not sure that Diana understands how long, if ever, it will be until she sees Sean again. That a child truly has a concept of what amount of time that is and what it means. Or if a "long time" to Diana is a week or a month. "She wouldn't ever hurt you," she adds, and she hopes it's true. "She knows how much it would hurt me."
Nick meets her eye, and nods again, and sighs, looking at the cop's car, returning to the matter at hand.