a/n: SO many wonderful reviews! Thanks guys! I finished the final part yesterday and it did not end how i was expecting it to (when do these things ever) buti think its how it needed to end. Anyway, i'll post part 5 in a couple of days, so for now, enjoy part 4!
'Til It's Gone - Part 4
Nick went into work the next morning as though nothing had ever changed and much like he had the day before when Nick had returned (gleefully ignoring direct orders), Renard ignored him. That didn't mean he wasn't closely watching everything Nick did, it just meant that, again like the day before, he was choosing to view the whole thing as another way to gain leverage on a Grimm and not reprimand one of his men.
Whatever Renard was doing, it gave Nick the chance to do something about finding Adalind and that was all he cared about.
He'd barely had a chance to sit down and greet Hank before Trubel walked in. He'd been under the impression she was away working for HW in another country but instead she walked right up to his desk and forced a short skinny man down into the visitor's chair they rarely used.
She'd used a set of plastic zip ties to secure his hands behind his back and he was sporting a nice big bruise on his left cheek. He didn't look happy to be there but Nick had to give Trubel points for looking like she had every right to be hauling the guy around in restraints.
'I'm supposed to deliver this guy to you,' she informed Nick. He was glad to note she seemed just as confused by the orders as he was. 'Meisner said you'd be looking for him.'
That confused Nick even more. After the way he'd stormed out of HW he hadn't expected any contact from Meisner at all. Definitely not the delivery of a living, breathing, man.
'Who is he?' Hank asked, leaning around his desk to get a good look at the man.
'He goes by Stitch,' she replied, giving the guy a warning look when he started to move. He slunk deeper into the chair and Nick's heart leapt.
'Stitch?' he repeated but he didn't actually wait for her to answer. He turned on the slimy looking man and the look he gave the man was all Grimm. 'You're going to tell me everything you know about Adalind Schade's abduction,' Nick informed him coolly. 'Then maybe I wont kill you.'
For some reason, the criminal wesen he came across always took his threat seriously, even in the middle of a police station where he'd have a hell of a time trying to hide the body.
Trubel seemed surprised by his words. 'What? What happened to Adalind?'
'Meisner didn't tell you?' This didn't actually surprise Nick, it seemed like the ex-resistance member was whole-heartedly stepping into Chavez's shoes. 'She was abducted four days ago.'
'What?'
But Nick didn't have time to give Trubel the whole story, he was closer than he'd gotten to Adalind since she'd been abducted and he wasn't about to waste time rehashing the whole nightmarish experience.
'Where is Adalind?' Nick emphasised every word, stressing the need for Stitch to answer honestly lest he lose his head.
'I just provide a service,' Stitch replied, speaking for the first time since Trubel had shoved him into the chair. His voice didn't match his tiny frame, it was deep and throaty, he probably came across as very commanding over the phone. Huddled in the small metal visitor's chair he lost some of that commanding power.
'I know what you do,' Nick snapped. 'Tell me who hired you to organise Adalind's abduction.'
Stitch shook his head. 'I can't rat out my client, I have a reputation to maintain.'
'Your reputation won't mean anything without your head,' Trubel pointed out helpfully.
Stitch shrank further away from her, as far as the chair would allow and looked pleadingly across at Hank. 'She just threatened to kill me! Aren't you going to do something about that?'
'That all depends on whether or not you give us a name,' Hank reasoned.
As threatened as he felt with two Grimms and a detective pressuring him, Stitch refused to give up the name of his client. Even when they moved into an interview room, away from prying eyes and got a little physical (if anyone asked he tripped over his own feet and collided with the wall. There was no helpful push.) Stitch (real name Norman Smith – easy to see why he used a street name) wouldn't budge.
Nick was seriously considering just taking him somewhere and cutting his head off when Wu popped in with Stitch's financials. The threat of beheading by Grimm didn't move Stitch but waving a future visit from the IRS in his face did the trick. Nick was sort of offended but if it got him Adalind's location he'd get over it.
They locked Stitch up in a cell until they could verify his information (and obtain enough evidence to charge him with – well whatever they could pin on him would do) and started a run on one Horatio Fitzgerald.
'Oh, hey,' Trubel said when the first picture loaded, 'I know that guy. He's one of the men Meisner thinks is running the docks for Black Claw.'
'Do you have an address?' Nick asked, a little eagerly he'd freely admit.
Trubel shook her head. 'We only had a list of aliases, I'm not even sure that's his real name.'
'Well we've got an address on file,' Hank announced. 'Forty minutes outside of Portland.'
They all leaned in as he brought the address up on Google Maps. Whoever he really was, Fitzgerald clearly had money to burn. While the house itself didn't appear to be anything special it sat on a decent sized chunk of land. Most people looking at that kind of space would probably have been thinking about its potential and the kinds of things they could do with it. Looking at all that space with nothing for miles all Nick could think about was how easy it would be for someone to go missing out there.
There'd be no one around for miles to hear Adalind scream.
It would make an excellent space for Black Claw to meet. It was out of the way, there was plenty of open land and the house itself was so far off the main road that anyone who happened to be driving by would never even know there was a house way out there.
He had a lot of trouble believing Meisner hadn't known about it. He had no doubt Trubel was going into this blind, she'd been genuinely surprised to learn Adalind was missing, but Meisner had made a career out of lying and manipulating people. He'd survived by slipping under the Royals noses and – if what Adalind suspected was true – killing off its members steadily over the years. Whether that had been solely under Renard's orders or the Resistance by way of Renard, they didn't know.
It didn't matter. Nick felt sure Meisner wouldn't have missed a great big chunk of land being used by Black Claw. If he'd been watching those shipments coming in through the airports and the docks then it stood to reason he'd know where those supplies (whatever they were) were going. Surely some of those supplies had made their way to this enormous chunk of land run by someone who was apparently quite high up in Black Claw's organisation?
'What do you know about this guy?' Nick asked Trubel while Hank and Wu tried to find a more detailed map of the area and (if they were lucky) a floor plan of the house.
Trubel shrugged. 'Not much, really, he's been spotted meeting with Lucien Petrovitch here in the States and he's rumoured to have been instrumental in the attack on the Wesen Council.'
It was alarming to realise he still had enough room left to worry about how easily Trubel talked about such things. She'd come a long way from the scared runaway he'd first met and given where her loyalties now lay he wasn't sure that was a good thing. He honestly missed the old Trubel, the one he didn't have to worry was getting in over her head. He missed the Trubel who didn't crash her bike outside his home and have to be rushed to hospital.
But that was a worry for another day, one that didn't include Adalind being held against her will and the potential for Black Claw to be making some big strike while he was distracted.
Which he still didn't actually care about, apparently he'd used up all his guilt, all his worry and fear on Adalind and his inability to face his own feelings. So while having Adalind torn away from him had forced him to face a few things, one of those things was not whatever the hell Black Claw was up to.
Didn't he have enough to deal with already? He honestly missed the days when he only had to worry about the Verat trying to kill him so the Royals could get their hands on his Keys. He actually had fond memories of those first few months when he was still trying to find his feet because, even as confused as he was, things were still so simple back then.
It was good to know that even though he'd give anything to go back to when things were so easy, he still wanted Adalind to be part of his life.
That had to prove he was finally coming to grips with his own feelings, right?
'Do we have any proof this is where Adalind's being kept?' Hank looked up from the plan he was studying.
Nick shrugged. 'Does it matter? We have to check it out, it's the only lead we've got.'
Hank nodded. 'How are we going to do this?'
Nick considered their options. Ideally they'd wait until dark and slip onto the property while there was little to no visibility. The cover of darkness would be best to help them check out the house and surrounding area without being seen, it would give them the best chance to ascertain whether or not Adalind was even there and if so where exactly on the property she was being held.
But did he want to wait that long? Could they afford wait that long?
He wanted to say no, he wanted to use the badge to get close and then let the Grimm take over once he'd gotten a closer look. He wanted to be rash, he wanted Adalind home but he also wanted her safe. He needed her to be safe. He didn't want Rosalee to have to explain to Kelly how he'd died being stupid and rushing into things just because he couldn't stand the thought of another night without Adalind.
Kelly deserved both his parents and Adalind deserved better than a half formed rescue attempt.
'We need to find everything we can on this Fitzgerald and the property. We talk to Stitch again and find out if he's ever been there, find out if Fitzgerald has any other properties he knows about. Then we go tonight, we're going to need Monroe for this one.'
'I'm coming.'
Nick hadn't actually thought Trubel would even think about sitting this one out but he just nodded to acknowledge her willingness to help. 'Can you go back to HW and find out everything you can on this Fitzgerald?'
'I can,' but there was something in her tone that suggested she wasn't sure her returning to HW was a good idea. 'If I go in though, I'm not sure Meisner will let me back out.'
Nick wasn't the only one whose eyebrows shot up in surprise at that statement. It definitely didn't help those feelings of worry that had started churning in his gut.
He'd just add that to the list of things to worry about once Adalind was home safe. Until then his mind was pretty much a constant refrain of adalindadalindadalindadalindadalind.
Actually, if he was perfectly honest, and he'd been pretty fucking honest with himself over the last few days, his mind was pretty much always stuck on Adalind now. It was just that normally the accompanying emotion wasn't an all-encompassing terror that eclipsed all of the other things he thought about on a daily basis. You know, like work and breathing.
'I'll be there,' Trubel said firmly and that was as much as she was willing to say.
It was one thing to lay out the basics of a plan but it was another thing entirely to fill in the details and the agonising hours between designing the plan and the time they could put the plan into action.
Which was way too many freaking hours filled with rehashing every question and interview with the three surviving kidnappers and Stitch. It involved avoiding Renard and hoping like hell the Captain didn't realise something was happening. It was the constant worry that he was asking his friends to put their jobs (and their lives) on the line for someone he wasn't even sure they liked.
Both Hank and Wu had nearly died by Adalind's hand after all; it wasn't like he could hold it against them if they decided she wasn't worth it.
That didn't mean he wouldn't be hurt if they did. It was a little conflicting to realise that as his friends and his partners he wanted them to want to help, he wanted them to put themselves at risk not because of him but because they appreciated Adalind and the woman she'd become.
But necessity said he'd be happy with them going after Adalind because of what she meant to him.
The day dragged on. And on. To distract himself, Nick finished off every bit of paperwork he'd been putting off for weeks. He did as much of the paperwork on Adalind's case as he could, finishing up the paperwork on the death of her kidnapper so she would have to spend as little time as possible in the station giving statements and signing documents. It wasn't like anyone was going to hold the death of her kidnapper against her, not when there was clear footage of her being dragged out of her car while her baby was stuck in the back.
He filled out the insurance forms for Juliette's old car because Adalind was going to need a new one as soon as possible. They wouldn't get much from the insurance company but it would be enough that Nick thought they could get something a little nicer, something that had a few more safety features. It wasn't like Juliette had purchased her car with plans of having a family in mind.
Nick successfully distracted himself with the realisation that while Adalind may have hated Juliette's car she'd driven it because it was there and it hadn't cost them anything. Even after her shopping trip with Rosalee she was still hesitant to spend his money. It was just, he didn't see it as his money anymore, he saw it as their money. Yeah, she wasn't actively contributing to the account and they were surviving off his single income but they were a family.
Besides, they'd both agreed it was still a little early for her to go back to work. Not because she wasn't physically able – and honestly she was probably getting bored at home – but because he wasn't sure she was emotionally ready to let Kelly out of her sight for the hours she'd be at work. When the thought of her going back to work did cross his mind there was genuine worry that what had happened with Diana would colour her ability to leave Kelly in day care and in the care of strangers.
Filling out the insurance forms and thinking about Adalind sent his mind wandering and he find himself wondering what had happened to her mother's house and all of the furniture and belongings. He knew Adalind had put a lot of her own things in storage, he thought she'd mentioned at one point that the only things she'd really bothered to keep when she'd moved to Austria were the powerful wesen items.
Hadn't Monroe said something about the books and objects they'd found when they'd been trying to reverse what had been done to him? Actually, he thought he recalled Renard mentioning something about the hat being quite powerful.
What had happened to the hat and the book? Did Renard still have those? He wondered if they could get them back if he did. They belonged to Adalind, belonged in her family, one day Kelly might make use of it or even Diana.
Happy for something unrelated to work to distract him, he started looking through the insurance notes and records of inheritance attached to Catherine Schade's death.
His eyebrows practically hit his hairline when he saw the house and all of the furniture had been auctioned off (though on whose authority he couldn't have said) and the money from the sale had been placed in a trust account. The account may have been in Adalind's name but he was damn sure she knew nothing about it. A little poking around showed that whoever had set up the account had only used it twice, withdrawing $5000 each time via wire transfer to an offshore account held by the very company Adalind had gone to work for. So the Royals had somehow managed to sell of her mother's home and then, what, failed to tell her?
Yeah, he'd be fixing that up as soon as possible. Having some money of her own might make Adalind more comfortable buying things. And hey, given what he'd done to their wall in a fit of rage she was going to need a willingness to spend a little money.
And it turned out that slogging through insurance forms and trying to find your girlfriend's missing inheritance really killed the time.
Nick's fingers froze in the process of lodging one last insurance form. Yes, he'd actually just thought the word girlfriend. Girlfriend. Somehow, that just didn't seem enough to describe what he had with Adalind. It sounded innocent and almost naïve, like something teenagers or people in their early twenties would have. He and Adalind had been through far too much, had done far too much to each other, for such a simple label.
Partner was the word he used to describe Hank and as willing as Nick was to acknowledge his feelings now the word wife just layered on the terror.
And not because he didn't want it. No, it was terrifying because he realised that, actually, he could see it in that future he kept imagining he and Adalind having. That was what terrified him. How was it that in just a few short months he'd come to care about someone he'd once hated with such passion that he was quietly losing his mind while she was in the hands (they were assuming) of Black Claw? How had just a few short months changed his opinion so much that he could think about marrying Adalind without feeling guilty for betraying what he'd once had with Juliette?
Of course, that could be the sleep deprivation and terror talking, but he suspected it was truly a case of finally having found someone who accepted him for all he was and who he could accept in return.
But that all hinged on his ability to find her.
When he'd run out of paperwork to file, insurance forms and any other meaningless tasks (like refilling his stapler which he normally refused to do until Hank was forced to do it because they'd both run out of staples – it was the simple pleasures in life) he gave up on the pretence of work and went to the Spice Shop. They were all planning to meet back up there later and this way he'd get a few hours in with his son while they finalised their plans.
He was getting in that quality father/son time when Hank and Wu arrived. Wu was out of uniform in deference to the likely not-quite-legal events that were about to take place. Nick gave Kelly one more playful raspberry before he tucked him tight against his side (he loved the way Kelly automatically snuggled his face into the crook of his neck) and turned to business.
He wondered if this would be Kelly's future. Would he be a grimm like his father? Constantly faced with wesen thinking he would behead them for simply existing or would he take after Adalind? And would that even make a difference in the end? The woman Adalind was now and the family they'd created together wasn't likely to ever be normal, they'd always be involved in the wesen community and he hoped that whichever way his son turned out he'd still be willing to see that not all wesen were bad.
Being a zieberbiest didn't have to mean being a power hungry bastard, that was just how Renard operated. Adalind (as she was now) was a much better example of what you could do with that power.
But again, he was thinking of a future where Adalind was very much present and that wouldn't be the case if they didn't find her and soon.
He hated that they were leaving Rosalee behind; she'd proven time and time again, she could handle herself in these kinds of situations, but unless he wanted to leave Kelly with Bud (he'd considered it) she was the best person to stay home with him. Nick could tell Rosalee hated it just as much. Aside from Nick, she was the only one who'd taken the time and put in the effort to build a relationship with Adalind and one that had nothing to do with him. Rosalee honestly wanted to be there for Adalind and not just because she was Kelly's mother.
Trubel did manage to slip back out of HW and she'd done it in a car they could actually use. He and Monroe piled into the grey SUV she'd probably taken without anyone at HW authorising it (Nick taking the wheel and Monroe conceding the front passenger seat to Trubel) while Hank and Wu took Hank's car. It would probably pay to have at least one official vehicle for when they had to start the clean up.
Assuming there was something to legally clean up. Things could go several different ways; they could end up killing everyone in their attempt to get to Adalind or they could end up doing nothing more than walking away if she wasn't there. There was a third option where no one got killed and plenty of people got arrested but Nick assumed anyone who didn't die (if Adalind was indeed on the property) would fall into HW's hands for interrogation.
Nick didn't much care what HW did with them as long as he got Adalind out safe and it kept Meisner off his back.
They didn't talk on the drive out to the property, they'd said all they needed to in the Spice Shop and frankly Nick wasn't in the mood. He cut the lights half a mile from the turn off and then pulled into a knot of trees just a short distance beyond the main road. They'd go the rest of the way on foot.
It reminded him of the night they'd gone to rescue Diana from the King. He just hoped this time turned out differently. He'd really rather not be forced to watch Adalind being whisked away in a helicopter, especially given how well that had turned out for the King.
And he still hadn't gotten more out of Meisner about Diana's location. It would have been nice to have some good news to give Adalind when they rescued her.
He didn't want to think about the possibility that Meisner wouldn't help him given how pointedly Nick had refused to help with Black Claw.
Now wasn't the time to be worrying over that. He stepped out of the SUV, carefully closing the door, and made sure he had plenty of weapons within reach. He had his gun in its holster on his hip but he also had his crossbow and a number of the knives they'd rescued from the remains of the trailer. Monroe had taken a few from the stash his uncle had inadvertently gifted them and Trubel had more weapons on her than Nick could account for, some of them so high tech he doubted he'd know how to use them.
He was just glad she was once again wearing armour. He still felt responsible for her, even if she didn't need him anymore.
'We taking the road?' Wu asked in a hushed voice.
Nick shook his head. 'Stick to the woods along the road. I want to get as close as possible without being seen.'
He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to find when they finally came across someone but it wasn't the scrawny teenager too busy playing a game on his phone to notice when Nick came up behind him and knocked him out. They were still a fair distance from the house and judging by what he'd seen on the maps this kid was likely supposed to be on the lookout for any cars attempting to come up the winding access road. He had a radio on him and Nick guessed his job was nothing more than to radio the house and warn them.
He wasn't armed and he didn't seem to think his job was worth taking seriously. Nick didn't know if that boded well for the security up at the house. They obviously had some security but would they have set up a lookout so useless if they were keeping someone important locked up on the property?
Did they consider Adalind important?
They tied the kid up, gagged him and moved on.
He felt a little better when they finally reached the fence surrounding the house and found two men standing on either side of the gate. These two were armed and were intently watching the coming road despite the silence of their radios. It crossed his mind as he and Monroe split up to take them down that if the teenager missed a radio check in they might be screwed.
Monroe rushed out of the tree line and growled at the two men, distracting them long enough for Nick to catch one of them off guard. He didn't go down easily, had clearly had some training, but he never got a shot off. The man Monroe tackled however, managed to free himself from Monroe long enough to fire his gun. The shot missed Monroe by a mile, passing harmlessly by him into the trees, but the sound had Nick's ears ringing with the sudden break in the silence.
Monroe leapt in for another attacked and Wu clocked the guard in the temple with the butt of his shotgun once Monroe had him pinned. Another two guards bound and gagged to collect later but they'd lost the element of surprise.
The radio in Trubel's belt came to life with demands for security teams to check in. Without knowing the right response, they couldn't just fake a check-in. After exchanging resigned looks, Trubel turned the volume on the radio down and picked up one of the guards' dropped weapons.
'We better make this quick,' Hank warned.
Nick nodded. 'We're gonna have to split up,' he acknowledge. 'There'll be more guards in the grounds around the house.'
'Wu and I can deal with them,' Trubel offered. 'You three go find Adalind.'
Nick hesitated but couldn't think of a better option that wasn't just sticking together and hoping for the best. 'Be careful.'
Trubel nodded sharply and then she and Wu slipped off along the fence line into the darkness. It didn't take them long to climb the gate but they were intercepted long before they reached the house. It wasn't long after that when the night was filled with the sounds of gunfire and the clashing of claws and teeth.
The men Fitzgerald had guarding the house were all hundjagers and they were happy to use guns or claws, it didn't bother them which. The three that attacked them in the driveway didn't go down any easier than the guards on the gate. There was no knocking these men out and tying them up. Hank killed one with a knife to the chest after a particularly painful blow to his wrist sent his gun tumbling from his hands.
Monroe ripped the throat out of the second after a very dirty tussle on the ground. Blood dripped from his mouth and he spat to clear the taste from his tongue. Nick simply shot the guard who came for him in the chest with his crossbow. When all it did was slow him down he pulled his gun and fired two more shots into the man's chest.
Somewhere off in the distance he heard Wu's shotgun blasting through the night.
Even if Adalind wasn't here something was, something they'd gone to a lot of trouble to hide. With that in mind, they closed the remaining distance to the house. No more guards came running toward them but once they'd gotten close enough to the house it was clear why.
They weren't the only ones attacking the house tonight. Someone else was already in there and judging by the sounds of breaking glass and the smash of furniture, the remaining guards were well and truly distracted. Had Trubel and Wu already reached the house? Going in there with no idea what to expect wasn't a particularly sound strategy but if Adalind was in there nothing was going to stop him.
More lights came on in the house and someone screamed. It wasn't a pleasant sound, it sounded like one of the men in the house was experiencing a lot of lasting pain. More shots sounded from the back of the house and Nick knew then that someone else had picked tonight to pay Fitzgerald a visit.
Just because they'd clearly come to kill Fitzgerald didn't mean they wouldn't turn on Nick and his friends once they realised there was another group attacking.
There was no way to get inside the house without crossing the well lit front garden. Whoever was still alive inside the house had turned on all the floodlights and the whole area was lit up like the 4th of July. Anyone watching from any of the windows on the lower or first floors would see them coming.
It was a risk he was willing to take.
Before they reached the door, a group of six men spilled out of the shadows between the house and the garage. Nick wasn't sure why they weren't already in the house but he didn't have much time to ponder it. They were too close together to safely take a shot; he didn't want to accidentally shoot Monroe or Hank in the melee. He safely holstered his gun, tossed the crossbow aside and pulled a knife as he rushed to meet the charging group head on.
Nick lost track of Hank and Monroe as he ducked and weaved, slashing out with his knife when he could. Something hard crashed into him and he felt claws rake his side, skittering off his vest and cutting deep into his arm. Pain flared up it from the wound but he ignored it. He could still move his hand and arm and that mattered more than a little (a lot) of bleeding.
'We got this!' Monroe shouted at him once they'd managed to even the numbers a little bit. 'Go find Adalind!'
Nick ducked under an arm that looked like it had been aiming to rip out his throat and made a run for the front door of the house, scooping up his crossbow as he went and trusting that Hank and Monroe could look after themselves. The door opened before he could reach it and he skidded to a stop, crossbow shooting up as he prepared to line up a shot.
He froze and for a moment the chaos around him faded away and all he could see was Adalind. She looked exhausted. She was bruised and bloody, her clothes were ripped and dirty but she was so real and standing in front of him that his heart felt like it might leap out of his chest. Even exhausted as she was and covered in blood – a lot of which didn't even look to be hers – she was still beautiful.
He had so many things he wanted to say to her, so many things he wanted her to know but right then the world around him roared back into focus and the only thing he could think to say to her was, 'Down!'