Disclaimer: With this story I am in no way claiming the rights to the characters of Grimm. Original characters and plot devices are owned by me but anything that you recognize from the show is not. This has been written purely for entertainment.

"It's time we settle our differences…violently." –Nick Burkhardt, Grimm

7.

One look at the panting woman in front of him and Nick raised his arms slowly. Her eyes held an adrenaline-induced panic that he'd seen many times before. Chase didn't fully process that she had her pistol trained on an officer of the law. She was just really sick of people coming into her house uninvited.

"Chase, hey." Nick said softly. If he was surprised or at all concerned, he hid it well. Though, his voice did cause something to trigger in her brain. Chase lowered her gun suddenly, and Nick jumped slightly.

"Crap. I have a license for all of these." Chase said. Then, she mentally kicked herself. Why would she mention her abundance of firearms first? Nick looked at her with an "are you crazy?" expression.

"I was more concerned with the body in the hallway." Nick said suddenly. He lowered his arms and put away his gun, while Chase placed hers on the desk.

"Right…" Chase answered. There was an awkward silence for a few minutes when all Chase could think about was the amount of blood she'd have to clean off the walls and the carpet, when she realized that Lukas had stopped barking. Heavy footfalls also were coming down the hallway.

"Whoa." Monroe said, coming around the corner. That explained why Lukas had calmed down; he liked Monroe. The wesen was looking down at the body in the hallway, which had just transformed back into its human form. When he looked up and around the room Chase was standing in, he added another "Whoa."

"What're you guys doing here?" Chase asked. Standing there, blonde hair sticking to her face with sweat and bandages slightly skewed, she wanted to be anywhere else.

"We heard yelling, barking, and gun shots." Monroe said. He was breathing deeply through his nose, like he was sniffing the air.

"Right, the murder trifecta." Chase sighed. This wasn't good.

"This looks more like self-defense to me." Nick said. Chase almost laughed. Right, where was her brain? Maybe she could still play this off.

"Well, yeah. Isn't that usually the case when someone is attacked in their own home?!" She was preparing to put on the hysterics when Monroe shook his head. Nick looked over at his best friend and then back at Chase.

"Quit it." He said.

"Quit what?" Chase asked.

"That act." Nick answered. "Have you been playing us the whole time? What's going on and why was this woman attacking you?" Chase sighed and looked around. This was bad. She should have left as soon as she learned her neighbor was wesen. She should have left as soon as she learned that he lived with a police officer who also knew about wesen. Why did she stay?

"Nick, maybe we should take this somewhere else. Let's go over to my house." Monroe placed a hand on Nick's shoulder and the detective nodded stiffly, gesturing for Chase to come. Chase crossed her arms and exited the room, but turned the opposite way down the hallway and made her way back to her bedroom. Nick seemed to realize what she was doing.

"The dog stays."

"Hell no." Chase replied, not even slowing down. If she was going into some unknown wesen's house, she needed Lukas by her side. Opening the door, Chase looked down to see him lying down, stretched out on the floor. She smiled when he wagged his tail upon seeing her. With a few pats to reassure him that she was fine, she led Lukas down the stairs and out the front door with Nick and Monroe.

Monroe had made a nice pot of tea that was still steaming. None of them even bothered to pour themselves a cup, though he didn't seem too annoyed. He was standing by a grandfather clock almost as tall as he was. Chase was sitting stiffly on Monroe's couch with Nick across from her in the armchair. Between them, keeping guard, was Lukas.

"Miss Chase." Nick said. Chase sighed; so they were back to square one.

"Detective Burkhardt." She replied in kind. Nick looked a bit stressed, so she didn't add any malice to her tone. She still needed to be one of the "good guys" in his book.

"Why did you move to Portland?" He asked. Nick was starting from the very beginning, then. She leaned back. He probably wasn't going to let Chase go until he knew everything. Or at least, what he though was everything.

"Is this off the books? Can and will you hold anything I say against me?" Chase asked. It probably wasn't doing her any good to be paranoid, but she wasn't ready to willingly flush her life down the toilet.

"If I was acting as a detective right now, you'd already be at the precinct. That being said, I have my badge upstairs if I need to go and grab it," he said. Chase must've imagined it, because he sounded a bit like he was mocking her. She supposed his question still stood.

"I came to Portland to get out of Detroit." Chase answered, but she knew she couldn't leave it at that. "Along with my rocky family situation, I was in a spot of trouble." Nick nodded thoughtfully.

"So the first time I met you…" Nick started.

"…you pushed me into a flower pot." Chase finished. He couldn't have found anything peculiar about that. It was purely accidental. At least, it was on her part.

"Alright, so the second time I met you." He thought for a moment. "That was after the murder of Peter Maroney. And you were in the bank robbery earlier that day, but off the record. What were you doing?" Now he was getting somewhere.

"I was following Maroney." She said. Usually, she was skilled at being as obtuse as possible, but Nick's eyes on hers made her want to confess. No, that was crazy, they mostly made her want to run away again.

"So you did have a connection with the victim." He said. Chase hesitated.

"No, not…really. But I guess I had a connection with his brother." She said. Chase wondered why Monroe was being so quiet, he was almost acting like a guard dog; like Lukas.

"His brother?" Nick asked. Chase nodded.

"His name is Miles, I only followed Peter because I mixed them up and I heard Miles was in the organ business." At Nick's blank stare, she continued. "Like, human organs. He harvested them and sold them on the black market. Sure, he was a surgeon, but he wasn't one of the good guys. Did you ever find his briefcase?"

Nick nodded slowly. Maybe he was making the connection for himself.

"It was full of cash, wasn't it? I bet Miles and his brother were working together. Find Miles and ask him about his little business and you'll see." Maybe Chase seemed a little too excited, because Nick wasn't very interested then.

"What were you planning to do with Miles after following him?" Nick asked. This was where things got complicated. She really needed to stop cringing before she answered every question. Okay, honesty, she thought to herself with a breath, you can do this.

"I was going to kill him." Chase said firmly. Monroe sputtered a bit off to the side and stared at her. Nick also looked like that wasn't quite the answer he was expecting, but it had to make sense. Monroe left the room, saying he'd be back in a moment. This left Nick and Chase alone.

"Why?" Nick asked. Was he really going to make her explain everything like a little kid? She didn't need to be scolded.

"Because I would be paid to." She said. When Nick asked her who was paying her, she shrugged. "I don't know. I pulled out of the job after the robbery and when I learned that it was Peter, not Miles I was following. Actually, whoever was paying me did have someone warn me that they weren't happy. They probably sent my attacker."

"We're not there yet." Nick said. Chase nodded and went along with his questioning. She realized that he wasn't using normal police tactics. Usually there was some level of empathy he'd establish, or trust. This was one step away from doing whatever was necessary to get information out of her. Chase shivered at the thought of what would happen if she didn't cooperate so well.

Only when Nick asked her once again about Peter "changing" just before his death did she simply shrug. He wasn't getting anything out of her about wesen. At least, not yet.

"Okay then, what about when you were attacked on Mount Hood? What were you really doing there?" Nick asked. Chase looked up at the ceiling in exasperation.

"Honestly, I was only going for a hike. My landlord told me about it. No ulterior motives whatsoever."

"Who's your landlord?"

"C'mon. It was just a fluke that that Volcanalis thing was there." She said. What could she have possibly been trying to accomplish by going on a hike in the middle of nowhere? It had been a nice day.

"There aren't many flukes in this city." Nick said. "And you seemed pretty accepting of the eight-foot-tall lava monster existing, let alone having a name." He added. Chase groaned. This was where things may get a little weird.

"Seeing is believing, right?" She asked.

"So you had to see that your attacker tonight looked a bit strange." Nick said. Chase realized she was digging herself into a hole. She was used to being in control of the conversation, but her act—as Nick had put it—wasn't fooling him.

"My house was dark. And it moved so fast…"

"It?" Nick interrupted. At Chase's black gaze he smirked a bit. "You said it."

"I said her." Chase spat. Nick shook his head, looking triumphant.

Suddenly, Monroe walked back into his living room. However, he wasn't alone. Lukas stood up from his position at once and started barking at the new member of their little kumbuya group. Before Chase could silence her dog, Rosalee, who just stepped into the room, jumped out of her skin.

Literally.

Her face transformed from one of skin and human-likeness to one covered in fur. Her eyes were frightened, and her teeth elongated into growling canines in an instant. She reminded Chase of a fox.

Chase got her hand on top of Lukas' head, causing him to stop barking, but the damage was already done. Rosalee turned back, but must have realized from the expression on everyone else's faces that she had just woged in front of Chase—a human. Not that Chase hadn't seen a woged wesen before, but it was always a bit jolting. Would she ever get used to it? Probably not.

"Rose!" Monroe hissed. Rosalee was still staring at Lukas, who was now much more relaxed and wagging his tail. Then her eyes shifted to look at Chase, who had swallowed her surprise and stayed where she was.

Tonight had not turned out the way any of them had expected.

"Sorry I'm late…" Rosalee whispered. Monroe turned back to Chase when he led Rosalee to sit down.

"You're not freaking out." He observed. Maybe he was a bit concerned, though he looked excited as well. Chase only sighed, needing time to think about her next confession. She really hated admitting all of this to them. And if her foster parents found out about this…Chase shivered, but not from the cold.

Not to mention that she was telling it all to a cop. She wouldn't give him any more names. As slimy as they were, people like George Pearson couldn't just be thrown under the bus. Word would spread, and Chase would never find a reliable contact again. She'd be at the bottom of the ladder she'd worked so hard to climb up.

"Well, I know that you're wesen." Chase looked at Rosalee, who sucked in a breath. Her eyes turned to Monroe. "You too."

"What?!" Monroe practically yelled. "How did you find out?"

Chase didn't say anything else, only pointed at Lukas. The dog looked up when Monroe's gaze fell on him and he started wagging his tail. He also let out a small and content "woof" of friendliness.

"That saves us the trouble of explaining, then." Nick said. He sat back in his chair and briefly put his hands over his eyes.

Maybe that was meant to be a phrase to lessen the tension, but Monroe and Rosalee still seemed unsure about all this. Just how much would they have to explain about all this? Chase met their unsure gazes with a small bit of hostility. She was definitely outnumbered, so admitting that she only hunted and killed wesen would probably not go down very well. That being said, if Chase left something out of her story, they'd probably realize. It would be better for all of them if Nick just stopped digging.

"So Lukas…" Monroe urged Chase on to explain herself, and her dog. She explained about how he'd been trained to sniff out wesen and bark whenever he found one. Chase also explained how she could silence him. Then, she turned to Nick.

"But Lukas never barked at you. I know Peter was a Geier, Rosalee's a Fuchsbau, and the intruder in my house was a Hundjäger. You're not one of them." Chase said. That last word was toned with judgement, but Chase only kept looking at Nick.

"I'm a Grimm." He said.

"A what?" Chase was pulling up a blank.

"Well it's obvious you're not wesen, or else you'd know what a Grimm is." Rosalee butted in.

"Grimms aren't wesen, but their ancestors have always been hunting us. Ever heard of the Brothers Grimm? Yeah, that's them." Monroe added. He looked far too excited about being friends and living with a wesen hunter. Then again, he was next-door neighbors with one. Chase was excited for a moment, until Nick said something else.

"I'm not like that." At his words, Chase tried hard to hide her disappointment. They'd definitely look down on her, then.

No matter how righteous Chase felt about her lifestyle, the high-and-mighty three musketeers in front of her definitely wouldn't approve. On a bad day, even Chase's justifications made her the slightest bit guilty, but she'd never forget what those wesen had done to her.

"Okay but, even so…How did you become best friends?" Chase asked. There was probably a huge amount of backstory to the entire Grimm story, but Chase could deal with just the basics. Still, Nick and Monroe shared a long look with each other after her question. She almost thought the silence would last forever until Monroe looked at her and opened his mouth.

"I was a murder suspect. Nick was on the case." He didn't even look the slightest bit sheepish. If anything, the expression on his face was one of pride. Nick smiled a bit too. Those smiles dropped when Chase opened her mouth again.

"Did you do it?" It probably wasn't the most mature question to ask, as everyone in the room looked at her in surprise. Chase didn't back down at their glares, however. You could never really tell with these wesen.

"No!" Nick was the first to answer. "Monroe helped me track down the killer and has been helping me with cases ever since. He isn't a murderer." Nick was very definitive in his argument.

"And if you need that much help, I'm guessing you're a pretty half-ass cop." Chase sat in silence for a bit, then, looking straight on at Nick who was only glaring at her for this statement. He seemed to realize though that retaliating wasn't worth it. All her questions were answered and she didn't want to reveal any more about herself that night.

Rosalee uncrossed and re-crossed her legs a few times from where she sat down at the beginning of the conversation. Monroe finally poured himself a cup of tea and was sipping it thoughtfully while glancing around at his numerous clocks. Nick had slumped back and was gazing into oblivion from his chair. Even Lukas had stopped wagging his tail and sighed a bit.

"What now?" Rosalee spoke up. Chase wasn't sure if that meant they had to do something with Chase or not. Nick snapped out of his staring contest with the coffee table and looked at Chase intently.

"I'm not going to have you take the fall for this." He said. Chase breathed out a sigh of relief. However, that feeling was short-lived. "You're right. That wesen lying dead in your hallway was a Hundjäger. This definitely smells like Verrat. We can get rid of the body and clean up your hallway. I want to get to the bottom of this and I'll need your help."

Chase didn't really want to help anyone. She mostly just wanted to crawl her way to the airport and board a flight to someplace as far away from Portland as possible. New Guinea sounded nice this time of year.

She started to stand up and take Lukas back home, but a hand around her wrist caused her to stop and look at Nick sitting in his chair. His face was menacing to say the least, and even her intimidation face wasn't that serious. Chase felt her breath catch when they made eye contact. The grimm looked deadly; absolutely lethal in every way.

"You are going to keep in touch at all times. Tell us if anything seems even the least bit strange around you, and don't do anything quote-un-quote 'risky.'" Nick took her phone out of her pocket and started punching his number into it.

"Usually when an attractive man gives me his number he's at least bought me a few drinks first." Chase grinned. Nick wisely chose not to respond until Rosalee piped up.

"And then do you kill them, too?" She said. Chase wasn't surprised by the statement, only by the tone of voice. It wasn't quite accepting, but she was nowhere near being serious. Chase turned to look at the Fuchsbau and studied her through squinted eyes. If she had to warrant a guess, she'd say that Rosalee had dabbled in some dark corners herself.

Monroe put his head in his hands and groaned when Rosalee spoke, but Nick just leaned his head back on the chair and gazed up at the ceiling for a few minutes. "We want to help you, but you also can't just keep continuing like this." Nick paused for a second and took a deep breath. "And no killing!"

Rosalee ended up taking Chase and Lukas over to her house. There was still a body in Chase's house, and for some reason Nick and Monroe volunteered immediately to clean up. While Chase knew some effective ways of getting rid of evidence, hiding a body was still her least favorite part of the job. Besides, if anyone knew how to get away with murder, it'd be a police officer.

The one thing about Chase's new babysitter was that Rosalee didn't know how to hold a conversation that well. She seemed perfectly friendly and open-minded, but Chase suspected it had something to do with a lack of Nick's supervision. He obviously ran this little rodeo, and they'd never encountered anyone in Chase's situation before.

"So…how're you liking Portland?" Rosalee asked.

"It's good." Chase replied. Her shoulder ached. She wanted to sleep.

"That's good." Rosalee shuffled into her home and disappeared down the hallway. Chase made herself comfortable on the couch and made Lukas a dog bed out of a blanket. He huffed at the poor workmanship but laid down nonetheless. Surprisingly, both of them slept well through the rest of the night.

The sweet darkness of her unconsciousness was interrupted by a fury of knocks on the door. Chase buried her head farther into her lumpy pillow and groaned. When she started to drift off again, the knocks resumed. Then Lukas barked.

This time, Chase opened her eyes, though they were still bleary, and rolled over to get a grip on a knife, gun, newspaper; anything to ward off an unwanted wesen. However, the other half of her bed wasn't there and she tumbled to the ground right on top of Lukas, who immediately shut up.

Shaking her head once, Chase finally realized that she wasn't back in her house. No, she was in the residence of one Rosalee Calvert and one of her biggest secrets that she'd kept since forever was out in the open.

She still ignored the knocking.

Finally, the door opened by a surprised Rosalee and heavy footsteps replaced the knocking. Chase shielded her eyes from the bright light and looked up at the intruder. It was Nick, followed closely by Monroe. The Grimm was holding a manila folder in his hand and glared down at Chase.

"Oh, I thought it was somebody important." Chase said and dropped her head to lay on Lukas' stomach. Her eyes were closed but she heard the paper rustling in front of her face, causing her to squint and try to make out the blurry letters. Realizing it was one of her job files, she became more alert and tried to grab it from the detective's hands.

Nick was ready for that. He grabbed her wrist when she made the snapping moment and pulled her up to her feet. Chase was still in the same clothes as the night before. Her makeup was probably smeared and her blond hair a rat's nest. She couldn't not glare at Nick if she wanted to.

Now fully awake, Chase realized the exact papers that Nick was holding. It wasn't just one file.

It was all of them.