a/n: For PariB in thanks for an amazingly insightful review.

Moment 7

He probably should have been more suspicious of the peace. The incessant texting had stopped hours ago and for the first day in a while he didn't know where Adalind was or what she was doing.

It was disconcerting at best, certainly alarming at worst.

He'd given up on pretending he wanted her dead or, more accurately, that his life would be better off were she dead, but he figured it didn't really mater how he currently felt about her, because having an unchecked hexenbiest as powerful (and frankly as up for revenge) as Adalind on the loose was never going to be good for his peace of mind.

But he was busy with a case involving wesen going violently mad (which effected Rosalee) and he could really have used her help which did make the silence from her more alarming than disconcerting because what if she was one of the wesen effected? Even if she wasn't, with Rosalee out of commission, Adalind would have been really handy to have around trying to mix up a cure.

But she wasn't around and he didn't know where she was and by the time dinner rolled around he was starting to get worried. Which he couldn't explain to Monroe who pointedly asked him if he was okay. Twice.

Which Nick didn't think was fair to his friend who was worried about Rosalee and didn't need to be worrying that his friend was under another love (infatuation?) spell at the hands of Adalind Schade.

Which he very clearly wasn't because he hadn't been mooning after her like Hank or showing any adverse effects of a love spell in which he started eating the furniture.

And thank god for that.

Rosalee was the first to get the cure once Monroe had it all worked out but they were running low on a key ingredient. Thankfully, Monroe had picked up a thing or two from Rosalee and both recognised the funny looking weed and knew that Nick had a stash in Marie's trailer.

It was the absolute last place Nick would have thought to look for Adalind but sure enough, when he stepped inside, there she was, curled up in the chair surrounded by open books with a notepad covered in notes.

Monroe's alarmed snarl went unnoticed by Nick who snapped, 'Have you seriously been hiding out here all day? I've been calling you all afternoon.'

Startled by his words (though not really by Monroe's snarl), Adalind looked up at him and blinked. 'Nick?'

'Adalind,' he countered, voice dripping with exasperation.

'What are you doing here?'

'What am I doing here? It's my trailer! What the hell are you doing here?'

'Oh,' Adalind shrugged, 'I stole your keys the other day.'

'You stole my keys?' Nick repeated. 'Why?' He thought if he asked calmly he might be more likely to get a response.

Adalind frowned. 'You know, I don't know. I probably could have just asked you but that's not really us.'

She could have asked and he would have given her the keys to the trailer. Of course, he'd have made her promise she wasn't going to use whatever she did in there to kill or curse anyone he'd have to then deal with, but he would have given her the keys.

'Adalind,' Nick snapped again. 'Why are you here?'

Adalind didn't really do guilty, not when she didn't think she had anything to be sorry for and Nick had never come across any of those moments. But she did look sheepish on occasion and she looked it then.

She indicated two boxes behind her, 'My apartment isn't exactly safe at the moment and my mother had some really nasty things in her storage shed.'

'Okay…' this sounded particularly dubious to Nick.

'Well I didn't think you'd mind if I stored the worst stuff here. Just, um, don't touch the box on the bottom without gloves. I think it's leaking malice.'

'It's what?' Nick asked.

'Leaking malice,' Adalind repeated because repeating it made it that much more sensible. 'I actually think Rosalee could help me with that,' she added, looking over Nick's shoulder at Monroe.

Nick had honestly forgotten his friend was there and he turned around to make an excuse but stopped short at the look on Monroe's face. 'What?'

'Dude!' Monroe exclaimed but he didn't seem to have anything else to add to that. Obviously he'd decided that if Nick wasn't attacking Adalind, was talking to her quite reasonably even, then he didn't need to be concerned. It probably helped that as far as Monroe was concerned Adalind wasn't a hexenbiest anymore.

'What are you doing here, anyway?'

All Nick could do was roll his eyes. 'Have you been here all day?'

'No, not all day.' Adalind tilted her head at him. 'Um, what time is it?'

'Its almost eight,' he informed her. 'I've tried to call you seven times today.'

'No you haven't.'

Nick rolled his eyes, pulled out his phone and rang her cell again. He followed the sound to where she'd tossed her jacket onto a stack of books and fished her phone out of the pocket. He took a moment to be indignant about the photo she'd set as his contact (although he could appreciate that anyone casually looking through her phone might assume it was a picture of his murdered corpse) before he ended the call on his end and handed her her phone.

'Eight missed calls and five unanswered texts,' he helpfully pointed out. 'We really could have used your help today.'

Adalind winced. 'Sorry. I got to reading this account of a grimm and a zauberbiest and then I got sucked in following a path and…' she trailed off looking sheepish again.

He huffed out a breath that bordered on fond rather than annoyed. Sometimes it was easy to forget how much of a nerd Adalind was. He moved toward her and tugged on her arm. 'You need to go home.'

'Oh but I - ' she protested, resisting his pull.

'Have you even eaten today?'

'Maybe.' Which told him she hadn't. 'But I just need to finish this one book and then I'm done.'

Nick rolled his eyes. Rather than leave her in the trailer to get sucked back into her research and have to come back to check on her and feed her in the morning, Nick cut to the chase and just lifted her bodily out of the chair and carried her out of the trailer. Calling a request back over his shoulder for Monroe to grab what they'd originally come for.

'And grab her jacket,' he added.

Outside the trailer he dropped her back on her feet and turned her to face the direction he figured her car was in. Monroe, still with the strange look on his face, handed Nick her jacket which he helped her into. She protested the whole time that she was an adult perfectly capable of looking after herself but he ignored her. Once she was in the jacket he tugged the keys from her pocket to place in her hand, replaced her phone in the other pocket and shoved her gently in the back.

'Go.'

'But - '

'Adalind, go home.'

'Fine.'

Nick watched her go and then turned to Monroe only to find his friend staring at him with an understanding expression that unsettled Nick. 'What?'

'Dude,' Monroe exhaled the word with all the feeling he could manage behind it. 'You like her.'

Nick groaned. 'Ugh, I know. She grows on you like a fungus and then suddenly instead of chopping her head off with a rusty axe I'm taking her to the god damn hospital to get a cast for her broken arm.'

'No,' Monroe shook his head. 'Nick, you like her.'

'I really don't.'

Monroe didn't look like he believed him. Nick wasn't so sure he believed himself.