AN 1: OMG, I am quivering with equal parts anguish, fear, and hope that our favorite show is almost over and what might happen to everyone. I can't believe this is the end for Grimm. I'm hoping whatever happens doesn't devastate me (or the muse - and yes I saw last week's.)

AN 2: Some of you have been waiting for this part. One more from the scoobies after this and then we'll check back in with our favorite couple for a bit. A big thank you to everyone for your continued feedback. I may need it after Friday.

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"You're sure they didn't find anything," he presses, and Sarah, the pretty blonde who's been appointed as his assistant, shakes her head.

"According to the reports they didn't even go inside," She says, and Sean leans back slightly in his chair. "Also, Callahan and Wexler have called again." Sean looks up at this, annoyance flitting across his face. "They still want a meeting."

"Tell them it's going to have to wait. I'm very busy," he says and Sarah nods sympathetically in agreement.

"Of course. Anything else?"

"No, that will be all," Sean says, waving his hand. "Make sure I'm not disturbed," he adds and Sarah smiles again and pulls the door to his office closed behind her. He leans all the way back in his chair and surveys his office, mulling over the information she gave him.

The office of the mayor of Portland, by all appearances, is a grandiose place. Deep, heavy oak furniture and bold, commanding reds on the wall. Something his father would approve of, and though it's reflective of his new stature in the community, Sean hates it. On his desk is a placard with his name and title on it, centered precisely in the middle of his desk. To the left a phone and to the right a computer. In between that, someone took it upon themselves to post a picture of Diana, Adalind, and Nick's son Kelly, taken the night it was announced he'd won the election. Likely placed there by the conscientious and sycophantic Sarah, who naively believes in the lie perpetrated by Black Claw and Bonaparte, that the new mayor is a strident family man. In it is a stiff and unhappy looking Adalind, fake smile obvious to Sean, a carefully swaddled and oblivious infant Kelly held close to her, as though she was attempting to shield him from this awful experience, and an excited and happy Diana.

His eyes linger on his daughter and he wonders not for the first time where she's at and what she's doing.

So far, all his efforts to turn up Nick, or Adalind and Diana, have yielded nothing. There can't be too many places that they can hide, particularly with someone as emotionally volatile as his daughter.

He wonders if Nick realizes he's bitten off more than he can chew by taking his daughter with them, but then again, doubtful he had much choice in the matter with Adalind. She wasn't going anywhere without her, and she wouldn't give up her son either, so unless he was able to somehow sneak Kelly away from his mother, Nick's only options were to take all three of them with him.

What a fun family getaway that must be.

It's surprising, though he long suspected there was something going on between them, that Nick allowed Adalind to come with him. Of course, he figured Nick would be focused on getting Kelly back, but he also figured in the grand scheme of things, that could mean give or take Adalind—and by extension her daughter. He knows of the two, Adalind would be more likely to romanticize the situation they were in, her gratitude for Nick bearing the responsibility of caring for his son and his son's whore mother, but shockingly, Nick seems to have developed feelings of his own for the woman who decimated his whole life.

It's stunning to know that Nick seems to include his former hexenbiest enemy now under his list of "loved ones." Had Sean realized that sooner, he would have better used it as leverage to manipulate Nick.

Bonaparte pushed too hard. He drew a line in the sand by manipulating Adalind into leaving Nick and taking Kelly, though Sean knows after what happened with Diana it's ridiculous to expect she would ever leave her son behind, either.

He didn't realize the extent that both Nick and Adalind had developed feelings for one another, though he supposes he should have expected that, too. They were living together, after all, under the pretense of trying to provide a loving and stable environment (between those two, Sean thinks, shaking his head a little) to raise their son. Adalind was dependent on Nick—without powers, means, and protection for a long time, and thus no job, no money, or a place to live. And no idea how to take care of an infant.

He knew better than anyone how seductive and charming Adalind could be, if she put her mind to it.

He just thought, after everything that happened between them, that Nick of all people would be more resilient to her charms.

That night in his office, after Nick had come home to his loft and found Adalind and his son had deserted him, he'd been as angry and resentful as Sean had ever seen him.

And the fact he didn't deny it when Sean took a jab at Nick's and Adalind's relationship. He snorts derisively.

He wonders if Nick fancies himself in love with her.

It's hard to even know what's more astonishing: that Adalind seems to have fallen hard for Nick. What her mother would do to her if she knew her daughter had developed feelings for a Grimm. Had had a child with a Grimm. Adalind would weep in gratitude if her mother only threw her out of the house.

Adalind had always been an incredible actress, but either she played the role so well that she got tripped up on her own feelings or she was genuinely in-love with Nick.

The Grimm.

The Grimm who stole her daughter away from her.

The Grimm who stole her powers.

The Grimm who devastated her twice, and yet won her heart and her loyalty, as evidenced by her stubborn refusal to cooperate with Bonaparte and the Uprising's agenda.

He mulls on the last few months, the days leading up to Nick and Adalind's disappearance.

Though he wasn't overly thrilled with being paired with Adalind for the convenience of it, he had to admit they made quite the political family. Or they would have, had Adalind participated with the ruse instead of acting like what they were asking was beyond her capabilities to support.

Despite Adalind's and Sean's history—or maybe because of it—she had no interest in being first lady of Portland. No designs to make the position a stepping point into her own resurgence of influence and power.

No desire, even, to entertain the idea, or rekindle a romance with him.

Not that he was overly keen on doing the same. Just that if they were going to be forced to be together due to Black Claw's plan, then he might as well make the best of it, and Adalind could certainly make it worth his while. The disgust she displayed when he suggested it was a little bit insulting, all things considered.

She's changed a lot in a few short years. Far from the bewitching young woman—girl, really—he met when he sought out the help of a hexenbiest in Portland on the recommendation of his mother. Catherine, recognizing an opportunity, had presented her daughter to him instead, and he had to admit he had been intrigued. Adalind, like her mother, was clever, cunning, sexy and fun.

And, unlike her mother, unfortunately, naïve.

So long ago, she had believed herself in love with Sean, and more importantly, believed Sean to be in love with her. There had been times in their sordid history, he could admit, that Sean had been so taken with her he had almost believed the same.

She could be very charming and charismatic and he still wonders if somehow Burkhardt didn't get caught up in her game.

She was still beautiful, but she had embraced the role of motherhood wholeheartedly, and seemed quite content to raise her son with Nick quietly. The pull of being among the city's elite, rich, and politically influential people no longer motivated her decisions.

The love and the thrill of power no longer held sway.

Though she had aligned herself with a pretty powerful Grimm, he mused sourly, so perhaps he shouldn't write off the notion that she was no longer attracted to power.

A Hexenbiest and a Grimm.

He snorts again.

Such a duo ought to stand out in a crowd, a Wesen crowd at least, but so far, he has recovered precious little information as to where two Hexenbiests, a Grimm, and a hybrid infant have gone off to.

And he certainly has enough people looking.

This latest report is frustrating to say the least.

It's been three months now and nothing.

And he can't imagine, even if Adalind and Nick could, that Diana would be able to keep herself in check for the long haul, given her impulsive behavior. Given what she did to Rachel, he half wonders if Nick is even alive. Maybe Adalind isn't either, and the thought chills him for a moment. He's not sure that his daughter would wish harm on her own mother, but maybe it's possible she wouldn't even realize what she was doing when she was doing it.

Which means, she could do something horrible to her father, and maybe not realize it.

He has no idea if even his daughter or Adalind are okay.

He has every cop under his command looking for clues. Every body they discover, every missing persons, every case that comes across the police blotter that's brutal, or bloody, or weird (even for Portland) he studies carefully for signs of Nick, or Adalind, or Diana, in them.

The new captain of the precinct he appointed is keeping close tabs on Nick's little Scooby gang. He's got Hank and Wu under close watch at the station. Eyes on Rosalee and Monroe, and that repairman Eisbieber friend of Nick's, too, but Eve and Trubel have been harder to keep track of and he only learned of their cross-country trip to Nick's birthplace by happenstance, and then he was scrambling to find someone who could report in on what they were doing. He's got feelers out everywhere, keeping tabs on the situation, reporting back, and Black Claw's influence and network spans continents, so he's confident if something becomes of their search he'll hear about it, though with the loss of Bonaparte the organization has been scrambling, disorganized, and slower than he expected to accept Sean as an acceptable replacement.

Judging by the amount of discreet searching still being conducted from Hank and Wu, and Rosalee and Monroe and the others, Nick's friends don't know what's going on either, which is curious, too. Nick wouldn't confide in one of them? He and the Blutbad were especially close, but it doesn't appear Monroe has any idea what has happened to his friend.

He tries to brush this troubling thought aside, but he finds himself brooding over it frequently. Is his family at work again on Nick? Have the other royal families that oppose him joined forces to try to slow Sean's ascent into power? Did Nick volunteer his services to them? Would Nick volunteer his services? He's hardly the type that likes to be under the thumb of someone, but perhaps he made the move when Sean and Bonaparte made theirs against Nick's family.

He wonders who in the royal families would reach out to him? Adalind would be his gateway of information into that, especially Sean's side of the family. If that was the case, having Adalind with him is even more understandable, but after Adalind's dubious part in the middle of all this family drama, he's not sure anyone on his side would trust her to be making decisions or guiding those of Nick's.

They certainly don't need her to raise Diana, but now that Diana's been reunited with her mother, and given what he's seen about her desire to stay with her mother and keep her safe, maybe the royals learned the hard way they had no choice in the matter.

Still, three months, someone from his side of the family would come forward to gloat. He still has connections there, people that feed him information from the inside and no one's seen anything of the pretty blonde lawyer or the Grimm, and definitely nothing of the royal heir.

Which begs the next possibility, more troubling, something more serious than secrets, lies and back office deals with ambitious royals: Something else befell Nick and Adalind.

They were dead.

If that were the case, who killed them and why? Someone in Black Claw? After all the trouble Nick and Adalind gave them he could see someone eliminating the possibility of any further issues, but certainly someone would claim responsibly. A Grimm was dead, after all, and a troublesome Hexenbiest who didn't want to side with the New World Order.

But Diana, where was she? Was she dead, too?

He had only just reunited with his daughter. The election and campaign, on top of work, had hardly given him any time to spend with her, get to know her, though what he'd discovered about her was alarming and disturbing, to say the least.

Which brings him back to his original thought: If Nick's alive, he wonders if Nick knows what he's gotten himself into by taking his daughter and Adalind with him.

And if Nick is dead, did Diana kill him?

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It's late when he gets home. The security detail Bonaparte had set up prior to Renard and Adalind and her children moving in greets him with a nod. The place is enormous, another obnoxious, ornate and stately structure, much more in line with his father's tastes than Sean's.

He prefers the clean, modern lines of his old house, but that's been abandoned for a long time, and since sold, the money going into some Black Claw/mayoral campaign fund that he never really agreed to. What remains of Black Claw is merely embers.

The house was too big even before Adalind and company set up house in it, along with a dozen members of Bonaparte's entourage, and it feels even larger without the children and Adalind breaking up the imperialism. Not that Adalind ever made the house feel warm, not with her chilly reception to him, Bonaparte and all the other aspects of their situation. Still, Adalind had been familiar, and she was nothing but a clever opportunist. If there was a way out of the confines Bonaparte had them ensconced in, she was the likeliest to discover it and use it to advantage.

Unfortunately, whatever she discovered was to her advantage, not Sean's, because three months ago, when he came home from his last official day at the precinct, Adalind, along with her son and his daughter, were gone.

And so was, he later discovered, Nick.

He twists the top off a brandy decanter and pours himself a large tumbler.

No trace of them. Just two cell phones found on the side of a road blocks away from downtown Portland days later. No trace of Nick's car either, and he's got every cop in Portland and beyond looking for it, too. He sips the brandy, mulling over the information Sarah had given him.

He doesn't know why Eve and Trubel would go all the way to New York. He's not aware that Nick has any other living family that could help him. Adalind certainly doesn't have anyone that would help them, not when they realized she was shacking up with a Grimm. All of Nick's resources were right there in Portland, and yet by all indications, they were just as bewildered as Sean was as to his whereabouts.

All of it pointed to the fact that Nick had either gone to ground, escaped the country without his knowing, or had discovered some powerful allies willing to help him. He knows H.W. in Portland, like Black Claw, took a blow. The loss of Meisner…

The loss of Meisner…he stares down into his tumbler, watching the amber liquid as gently rolled around in the glass as he moved it.

Meisner was another opportunity that Bonaparte squandered. Like Nick, he should have gone at Meisner a different away. If they could have secured Meisner and H.W., they would have had resources like Eve at their disposal, but he sighs, understanding how unlikely it was to happen.

Still, Meisner had long been an important ally, and he had Meisner to thank for the reclamation of his daughter and the death of his father. Had things gone another way, they could have been a force to be reckoned with in Portland.

Instead, he was dealing with an insurrection.

A Grimm like Nick in Portland would be welcome right now. Meisner would have been handy, too, in quelling a rebellion. His daughter could be critical to silencing the doubters and outright dissenters demanding he step down from his position as Mayor.

It was getting harder and harder to control the masses, especially those that were calling for action, opposing the platforms he worked hard to put together.

Portland was descending into chaos, and he didn't think it said much about his ability to rule that the first three months of his reign was marked by Wesen on Wesen violence. Of course, Wesen were notorious for violence, and he wasn't lying to Nick when he'd told him they were responsible for most of the violent crimes the department came across. Still, the uptick in the violence since he took office didn't reflect well on his leadership abilities to his peers. The Kehrseites were hardly built to handle the disorder erupting everywhere, and the Wesen he tasked to the job of restoring some order were merely contributing to the bedlam, not eradicating it. Grimms had long controlled Wesen who stepped out of line, were far more equipped to do the job efficiently and effectively, and he could use one right about now.

And he could use his daughter to remind everyone of who they were dealing with, too. That little trick with Bonaparte, and those others with Sean and her mother…it would be useful right about now, for some of the things he was up against.

Instead, he's fighting his own people to maintain his hold on the city.

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It's not just the wesen of Portland who are terrified of upsetting the status quo of the last thousand years giving him trouble. There are many of those who are content and prefer to live their otherworldly nature and lives in secret as they, and all their ancestors, have for generations. There are the ones who sided with Black Claw and Bonaparte that remain who are clamoring for change and unwilling to wait or make the steps necessary to transition into the mainstream society.

Now there's pandemonium in Portland as Kehrseites are being introduced to things they've never seen and can hardly comprehend. Naturally, that which is unfamiliar and terrifying, is treated with hostility. Kehrseites are attacking Wesen. Wesen are attacking Kehrseites, angry with hundreds of years of oppression, and Wesen are attacking other Wesen, angry with those who won't side with them and support the cause.

All it is, is creating a wasteland of a once beautiful and prosperous city and Sean is trying everything he can to keep Portland alive and relevant, not just another urban area lost to violence and crime.

The efforts to do so have resulted in a few dozen acts of crime itself, either physically perpetrated by him, or approved by him, and no little amount of seedy arrangements with some questionable characters. There's been far more consorting with people on the fringe of society than he likes, preferring to keep his hands clean of any undesirables, but without a Grimm (or two) it's becoming impossible to keep everyone in check.

The police department is overrun with crimes to solve, and there's a backlog of murder investigations of epic proportions since he left. He doesn't think that Hendrick is doing anything other than collecting bribes from prominent members of society in exchange for "protection," and the whole thing is starting to rankle.

It prompts a visit to the station one day, and his presence is greeted with cautious welcome. He's aware the police department, like the city, it seems, is divided up into two camps. Those who think Nick's innocent despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and those wesen officers that sided with Sean. He meets Hank's eyes as he enters the department and a sour expression crosses the former detective's face.

"Hank," Sean says, aware they haven't talked since they exchanged a few veiled threats to one another in the early days of Nick's disappearance.

"Mr. Mayor," Hank replies with condescension, minimizing a window on his screen. He leans back and smirks at Sean, knowing Sean saw him trying to hide something on his computer. Sean has Hendrick have the IT department track any activity on Hank's and Wu's work computers, and so far, in the last few weeks there's been no activity to indicate either one is still searching for Nick's whereabouts.

That could mean he knows where Nick is, or has given up.

"There's several open homicides that I'm waiting impatiently for resolution on."

"Oh, there's at least a dozen open homicides, Mr. Mayor, that I'm working on, so I guess you're just going to have to wait some more."

Sean levels a stare at Hank, unimpressed with his flip attitude.

"If you don't think you can do the job, maybe you should resign," he suggests, and Hank tilts his head, considering.

"Maybe I should," he agrees, and they stare at each other.

Hank's not going to resign and lose all the police capabilities of tracking. The department offers him resources and accesses that a private civilian doesn't have to search for someone.

"I hear San Francisco's hiring," Hank continues. "Spokane, too. I'm sure lots of places are," he says. Not that he wouldn't blackball Hank anywhere he tries to go, and Sean's sure Hank knows that, but losing Hank would mean losing a direct link to Nick that's under his thumb.

His eyes darken as Hank meets his gaze challengingly. Sean needs Hank, just like Hank needs the job and the resources it provides.

"The Forest Park murders, and the Davidson homicides - Make them a priority."

"I've been swamped. Trying to break in a new partner, too, a rookie. Hard when you don't have good help. A partner that can pull his weight… Well, it's going to be a while."

"Mr. Mayor!" Hendrick says, coming out of his office when he spots Sean through the blinds. "Did we have an appointment?"

"Didn't think I needed one," Sean says with another look at Hank before moving his eyes to Hendrick. Hendrick steps back and holds the office door open, inviting him in, and Sean moves away from Hank towards his old office and encounters Wu, who gives him a sardonic look. Something strange has been going on with him, too, but Hendrick hasn't reported anything of interest back and Sean wonders if he's even trying at this point. He's gotten more information from his own lackeys who reported Wu took a couple days off last month and spent it locked up in his apartment.

He takes a seat in front of his old desk, looking around as he does at the changes Hendrick's made in the last few months. The desktop is sloppy, filled with folders and papers, presumably of cases, but given the lack of progress in the department since Sean left, he doubts there's much work on Hendrick's end that's been done.

"Why are we making no progress on those two cases I gave you?" Sean starts off.

"I gave them to Griffin and Orwin," Hendrick replies.

"And I gave them to you, with specific instructions to get your best people on it and to get them solved ASAP." There's no denying with what they're up against Hank's probably the best qualified detective for the job – except of course, he's no longer a detective. He'd been all for Hendrick demoting Hank, especially after all the trouble Hank, and Wu, gave Sean with regards to Nick. Now, though, he wonders if maybe he's going to start regretting that decision.

"Who's his new partner?" he adds.

"Orwin," Hendrick replies, sneering. Sean frowns, trying to place the face with the name. "Judge Allen's nephew. His wife has been pressuring him to find him a job, and Allen's been after me, so seemed like pairing him with Griffin was two birds, one stone."

Sean's frown deepens. "A rookie?" Nick had been a rookie, too. Once. But Nick was in a different category than Orwin.

"Yeah, Sergeant Griffin's been showing him the ropes," Hendrick says with a chuckle. Sean might be more amused if the two cases he was referring to didn't need a good detective on it – a good detective familiar with Wesen cases and issues, with the resources at their disposal, such as Monroe and Rosalee, to figure out what they were up against and take care of it. The Forest Park murders and the Davidson homicides were two series of incidences that the press was having a field day with, fanning the flames of fear and paranoia. They were also of further concern to Sean, who detected there might be a threat even bigger than those trying to overthrow him in Portland.

"Well, pull him off or reassign him," Sean says, and the smile abruptly leaves Hendrick's face. "I need those cases solved now. The community is reeling and we don't need any more press about another gruesome body found and the lack of progress from the Portland P.D."

"You mean, you don't need any more press?" Hendrick retorts.

No, he doesn't. The press in combination with some other policy factors have started to question whether Sean can be a competent leader. More yellow journalism from those factions who expected a more rapid ascent into a Wesen controlled world and are upset at the pace Sean's implemented.

He's fully prepared to bring Portland, and the world, into the twenty-first century, but he's also fully aware that it can't, and shouldn't happen overnight. He needs to gain the trust of the people, try to eliminate the in-fighting and violence going on so that he can show that it's possible to live prosperously in a Wesen run world. That he's an effective and opportunistic leader.

Harder to do when every headline is proclaiming a strange and hideous murder every week and hinting loudly that the new Mayor might be in over his head.

"I would think solving them and ensuring you have your best people on it is to your benefit, Captain. The chaos that's resulting is from your lack of progress, and it's creating more work for your department. You look incompetent."

Hendrick's ears flatten as he woges briefly with anger, his snout wrinkled, showing sharp teeth. His eyes darken to full black and Sean stares back, unimpressed, as Hendrick regains his composure and his face flips back to normal.

"With all due respect, Mr. Mayor, it's your policies that are creating more work. I don't think the people that voted for you were hoping for a lame duck mayoral candidate. If you'd just let us take care of things like I had asked—"

"And then we'd be instituting martial law, wouldn't we?" Sean cut in. "Just what our fair city needs. For the citizens of Portland to fear authority and flee."

He needs to prove that governing a diverse body such as Portland can work, that he can control the constituents and prevent the town from descending into the kind chaos that the whole world is expecting if they found out what it's really made of. He'll never move up, gain more positions of authority and power, if he can't control his own people and his own city.

"If you feel the job's too much for you," Sean begins, looking at Hendrick and Hendrick's eyes darken again. "Then I'll find someone else who can do the job."

He lets the threat hang in the air and Hendrick clenches his jaw for a moment as he fights to keep his temper under control.

"No, Mr. Mayor. That won't be necessary."

"Good. I expect Hank to start making some progress on those cases ASAP. I look forward to our next progress report."