When morning comes, the atmosphere is subdued. Diana wonders if anyone actually managed to sleep besides Alice, who thankfully looks better than yesterday. The view from the plateau goes on for miles and miles, and they can see dark clouds forming around peaks in the distance. If the clouds shift closer—and Diana suspects they will—the peace on the plateau will be over soon.
At noon, Diana takes the eastern watch, gazing out at the path where danger might arrive at any minute. She can sense something gaining down below—too small for a bear, too large for a wolf—and she almost hopes tigers have moved into the area, because otherwise it's a man, and they're not expecting company.
"Tigers? In Oregon?" Nick says when she tells him, and she rolls her eyes at the old Monty Python joke.
"You are such a dad sometimes."
Nick smiles—just that little quirk of his lips at the corners—and bumps her shoulder with his. "Of course I am. I'm your dad."
The smile drops when a head crests the ridge, and they both lift binoculars to see.
There's a lot of shaggy black hair and over-sized sunglasses, but then Diana recognizes the Burkhardt nose and laughs. Nick does, too.
"I'm also his dad, although clearly my fatherly advice has fallen on deaf ears."
"What's he doing here?"
"Oh, you know. I'm sure that famous Schade-Burkhardt impulse control is functioning as usual."
"Which is to say not at all?"
"Doesn't exist! We're lucky you've got that Royal restraint."
"Is that what it is?"
"That or we put the fear of god into you. You turned out all right."
"Thanks."
Kelly waves then, 100 feet away, and Diana can't wait any longer. She levitates him the rest of the way so she can give him a hug.
"I hate when you do that," Kelly whispers in her ear while squeezing her tight.
"That's why I do it, baby brother," she says, pulling back to pinch his cheek for good measure.
Nick steps in then and hugs his son with a good old hair pat thrown in. Diana feels something warm settle into her bones watching the two of them again. She remembers when they were her guys, and today, as they pull her into a sandwich hug, they still are.
Adalind is there next, hugging Kelly tight and already asking the tough questions:
"Why aren't you in California? We told you to stay safe and stay put far, far away from this mess."
Kelly sighs and rests his chin on her head—something Adalind hates but will tolerate from him.
"Well, I got off the phone with you, and I ran into an Eisbiber and saw his woge on my way to the car. Scared the crap out of him. And I figured that might mean I wouldn't be totally useless up here, so I came to lend a hand."
Adalind pulls back to look at him, reaching for his face and staring into his eyes. "You're a Grimm?" She woges then, and they look at each other carefully across a matter of inches.
"It's just me, Mom," he says softly.
When she turns back, Adalind is glowing with pride. "I'm so glad you're not a Zauberbiest."
"Yet," says Nick, because he has two Hexenbiest daughters and a healthy sense of precaution. "Welcome to the business side of the family, kiddo."
Kelly laughs. "Feels like a long time coming. Can I have a sword now?"
Nick grins at Adalind. "What did we say, twenty-five? Phone in second grade and weaponry at twenty-five, right?"
Adalind grins back. "Oh, definitely. Twenty-five at least. How old are you again, sweetheart?"
"You guys…"
"Sounds about twelve," Nick says, reaching out to ruffle Kelly's hair while Kelly tries to dodge his hands. "Maybe we should wait until thirty."
Kelly just glares at them. "I hate you both so much."
"I know, darling," Adalind says, pulling him into another tight hug.
"Trubel's got a whole war chest," Nick offers. "We'll find you something."
Alice arrives then, pushing her mother out of the way, and, without any words of greeting, latches onto Kelly like a limpet.
Kelly pats her back like he has plenty of times before and looks to the rest of them for insight. When none is forthcoming, he gives Alice a jiggle in his arms and addresses his question to the top of her head. "Hey bugbear, what's up with you?
"I probably have to seduce a sea witch," Alice says, mumbling into his coat.
"Okay. Is she hot?"
Alice pulls back to give him a look that could freeze a lesser man, but Kelly just grins.
"Very," Alice says finally, through gritted teeth.
"Yeah? Okay. Go get that sea witch!"
"You are an idiot. The first hexenbiest that gets her claws into you, you'll be a total goner."
"Well, it worked okay for Dad."
"Dad has taste!"
"Okay kids!" Nick says loudly. "Don't make me send you to your tents."
They head back to camp where everyone is thrilled to see Kelly. Monroe and Rosalee woge in greeting and Kelly goes in for the sandwich hug. He and Trubel share a complicated secret handshake and even Eve pats his shoulder in welcome. Looking around the group, his eyes come to land hard on Dan.
"You're new here. Where'd they dig you up?"
"Hi, I'm Dan," he says, holding out his hand to shake. "I'm with Diana."
"Oh, really?" Kelly ignores the hand and looks for his sister. "Diana, are you bringing home strays now?"
Diana steps in to take Dan's arm, smiling up at him while she addresses Kelly. "What do you think, should I keep him? He's a Grimm, too, you know."
"Of course his is," Kelly says with an eye roll she'd hoped he would have outgrown by now. "You are such a daddy's girl. No offense, Dan."
Dan shrugs, chill as ever, and Diana is starting to wonder if there's anything that would shake him now. Maybe after you met a Zauberbiest Royal, there wasn't really anything else to worry about.
"I'm offended," she tells Kelly. "But also, can you imagine…?"
Kelly shudders. "No, no. A Grimm is good. Welcome to the reasonable side of the family, Dan."
Diana meets his eyes again, and Kelly grins. "Okay, that's a stretch. We're up a mountain with a small army, and we're the normal ones.
Dan shrugs again with a small smile now. "I like it. It's a good normal, for a Grimm."
"Yeah? You're going to have to show me your moves. Trubel says she's running out of things to show me."
"I said you were running out of things to use without Grimm powers," Trubel interjects on the other side of camp. "Now you're souped up, you're going to have to show us everything you know."
""I'll help," Dan offers.
"So will I," says Eve, with her usual terrifying gaze.
"So, no pressure then." Kelly says with a sigh. "Di, tell me about this sea witch."
Diana fills in the previous day's revelations, and Kelly lets out a long whistle.
"Does that make me King Arthur?"
Everyone shares a panicked glance, but Nick just looks at Adalind with a smirk.
"Let's have a third, you said. It'll be fun, you said."
Adalind fights to control a smile of her own. "Listen, we had to plan one, just for the novelty."
"Do you think if we'd had a fourth, he would have been Lancelot?"
"I don't know," she says, grinning up at him now. "Wanna find out? I'm sure I can find a spell to reverse this pesky menopause."
"Oh no. I am not doing that again." He looks to Monroe with a wince. "She threw a kettle at my head when the thermostat broke."
"Don't talk to me," Monroe says, looking to Rosalee. "You haven't seen a hot flash until she's covered in fur." He tries to dodge Rosalee's swat to his stomach, but she's faster.
"Three it is," Adalind says, then, as an afterthought, "Kelly, if a lady offers you a sword from here on out, don't take it."
"What if she's hot?"
Adalind closes her eyes in exasperation and nods. "Even if she's hot. Go get yourself set up in the tent, you're in with us and Alice."
"You guys really cramp my style," Kelly mutters on his way to the tent.
