It's a boy.

That was the hardest thing she'd ever done in her life. Adalind sunk into the back seat of the cab as the tears wouldn't stop falling. Hardly the day had passed before she missed Nick. She almost told the cab driver to take her back. Her whole body was aching for him, his arms and his kisses. She missed the warmth of his loft despite the fact that it was practically barren and Portland wasn't exactly known for its warm sunny weather. For a month, that loft had been her home and to walk away left her bereft and hopeless.

Her phone rang but she chose not to answer it despite her itchy fingers and need to hear his voice, sweet like honey. The phone eventually stopped ringing but he was relentless but Adalind was just as stubborn.

She had walked out of Nick's life without a plan, no job and not even a place to stay. She began to panic as she thought about Diana. This past year, Adalind had lived through the worst times of her life but Diana had known nothing but luxury and security. Suddenly her regrets turned multiplied exponentially over her daughter. She refused to contact Sean, not after his last betrayal and was even more tempted to answer Nick's call and tell him she'd made a mistake but that would be unfair to all of them. He deserved so much more that a witch for a lover and using him so he could be a shield between Diana and the rest of the world made Adalind feel dirty.

The first thing Adalind when her tears stopped falling on the day she left Nick was to call Frank Ellis, her mother's lawyer, and ask if he could help her.

"I need a place to stay and I need a job, I don't care how small, anything will do right now, seeing as I am desperate…."

"Adalind, this is a surprise. The last I heard you were working in Vienna for the von Konigsburgs?" said the elderly lawyer.

"I was my contract came to an abrupt end and had to vacate immediately. I know this is very short notice but I'm rather desperate."

"Well I have some good news for you. Your mother's house, she left it for you but unfortunately, Catherine neglected paying her taxes on the property, so most of her furniture had to be auctioned off to pay off her debts. The only thing that's left is her library which I placed in storage. And as for a job, there are no new positions open at the firm…"

"Please Frank, anything will do. I'm in a desperate situation and I have nothing but the clothes on my back."

"Alright, you've twisted my arm long enough. What kind of a friend would I be if I didn't try to help the daughter of my 'good' friend, Catherine?"

"You must be talking about another Catherine because that doesn't sound anything like my mother." She said dryly.

"Hm…that's true. In any case it's like I said. The house is your, come by my office to get the keys. And I can give you a consulting job, nothing fancy like your old job at Berman Rautbort Law, you'll be doing mostly research for us…."

"It's perfect!" Adalind jumped.

"…And pay won't be much."

"I know, and as they say, 'beggars aren't choosers'."

"As long as you're sure, we can talk more about it when you get here." And they did, thus Adalind was saved.

Frank gave her an advance on her salary, which she used to furnish her mother's house with essentials for her and Diana. When Frank asked her what had happened with her previous job, she debated on whether to tell the old man or not. Seeing how Frank had come through for her, Adalind decided to trust him with the truth and why she refused to contact Diana's father and asking him for help.

"I understand. Well, you can always call me, if you need anything. I meant what I said to you about being fond of your mother. Your mother was a difficult person to live with but I…I loved her." Frank confessed.

That was a new but then it didn't surprise Adalind. Frank had remained very loyal to her mother since the day Adalind's father walked out on them when Adalind was just four year old. Apparently, his loyalty was borne out of love. Adalind felt sorry for the man.

"If I can help you in any way I can, it will be my pleasure." He concluded.

"I appreciate that"

"wanted to give you this before I left, a sort of 'Welcome Home' gift." He said as he handed Adalind a manila envelope.

Adalind emptied the contents of the envelope and found papers, social security, passport, a birth certificate that said "- - -" was four years old even though she was closer to eight months in reality.

"This is blank."

"Yes, you can put Diana's name, prints everything you need on these papers or else the spell won't work. It's a binding spell that links Diana physical growth to those papers, and not just these hardcopies but all records of her should someone be a little too curious."

"Oh my…." She didn't know what to say, she was overwhelmed.

"It's really nothing. A former client of mine who deals a lot with this sort of thing did it for me. He left it blank for Diana's protection. I figure you don't want too many people knowing about her."

Adalind quickly wrapped her arms around Frank's round middle and thanked him, sincerely.

To celebrate, she offered to take Diana out for some waffles. Diana was particularly excited since her mother's home wasn't fun like "Nick's loft" Diana would complain when Adalind chastised her for something.

"I want to go see Nick?" Diana would vent when Adalind was too strict with her.

Oh Nick….

Not a day passed without Adalind thinking about him. She'd find herself dialling his number but cancel at the last second. Had he become a Grimm again, she wondered? He had to be, it would explain him not contacting her after she left him and her headaches had disappeared completely so she couldn't even see him in her mind's eye. She missed him terribly, the way his husky voice said her name, the feel of his breath on her neck….

She was already picturing him undressing her with his eyes when her phone, still in her hand, rang, cutting her fantasy short. She looked down at the caller ID, there was no name but she recognised Sean's office number. Ugh!

"Sean." She huffed.

"Adalind."

"What do you want?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were back in Portland?" he asked.

"We aren't friends. I don't own you my daily itinerary."

"But I am Diana's ather and I want to see her. You should have told me."

"Like you told me you gave her to Viktor, who almost killed me in case you're wondering!"

"That wasn't my doing by the way. I need to see her, she's my flesh and blood."

Adalind scoffed, wishing it were otherwise, at least Erik was dead and out of her life for good.

"I'll come by this evening…" he told her.

"No. You will see her when I'm good and ready." She retorted.

"You bitch."

"Careful of how you speak to me Sean. I'm not the same weak Adalind you used at your will, after what you did to me I don't owe you anything. But don't worry, I won't keep Diana away from you. However, I won't let you use or hurt her like you did me. And don't bother fighting me on this because you will lose. Wait for my call." She said and then hung up without saying goodbye.

Adalind screamed, cracking the glass screen of her phone in half.

"Mommy," Diana came running into the room. "Are you okay?" she asked softly.

"I'm fine Sweetheart, Mommy's fine." She lied. She learnt the hard way not to let Diana see her emotional. Diana had a very deadly mean streak where Adalind's wellbeing was concerned, turning against those she feels have hurt her "Mommy" Adalind was grateful for the relationship Diana had with Nick, he'd wormed his way into her daughter's heart and that shielded him from her daughter's extreme tantrums.

"Was it Daddy?" Diana asked with her face expressionless.

"Yes, he'd like to meet you some day." Adalind tried to sound somewhat not put off by the prospect but Diana wasn't stupid.

Adalind realised what this could mean for Sean if he stepped out of line and continued to pester her.

"Diana I want you to know something. I love you so very much and everything I have done has only been for you. Do you get that?"

"I know Mommy."

"That's my girl. Now get you coat or else the waffles will be all gone by the time we get to diner." Adalind gently nudged Diana in the direction of her "playroom" where she'd left her tiny beige, wool-lined jacket.

"Okay Mommy, I'm ready!"

*/*/*

Nick had to get out of the office after a brief, yet awkward encounter with Renard. Nick had been escorting a suspect to the interrogation room and somewhere between that and the elevator, the suspect broke free from his restraints, knocking Nick backwards and causing a lot of chaos as half a dozen police officers scrambled to contain him. A woged Captain quickly intercepted the suspect and jumped him, but not before locking eyes with Nick and a look of masked surprise crossed his half-marred face and then returned back to its normal features. It had been a month since Nick got his Grimm abilities back but that morning was the first time the Captain became aware it and Nick, not wanting to deal with the Captain, made himself scarce and returned to the scene of the crime and dragging Hank for the rise.

While Hank questioned the shop owner who'd been burgled about any enemies he could have had, anyone who'd purposefully target him, Nick turned to the the only employee still left at the shop. After asking several questions and reaching a dead end, Nick slipped next door to the diner to buy two cups of coffee; little did he expect to see a pair of violet eyes smiling in his direction as he entered through the door of the eatery.

"Nick!" Diana squealed with delight out and ran straight towards him.

"Diana, oh my…look how big you've grown since the last I saw you." He smiled at the blond little girl after scooping her into his arms.

It was no lie. In one month, Diana had grown a lot since he said his goodbyes at Rosalee's spice shop. He gave her the biggest hug to make up for the time apart and Diana seemed to appreciate it as she happily bounced in his arms. Satisfied she was satisfied, he spied Adalind from above Diana's curled head, although he tried to guess her thoughts, he couldn't read her expression. Nick walked up to her table and the deposited Diana on to her seat next to Adalind.

"Hello." He said as he cleared his throat nervously.

"Hi." Adalind said.

At a loss at what else to say, they just looked each other over. She looked more beautiful, that the last time he saw, if that was at all possible.

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm good. We're good, and You?"

"I'm better, everything's in working order." He added and immediately felt like an idiot for that last part.

"That's good to know…Do you want to maybe…"

"Do you mind if I… what?"

"Excuse me?"

They spoke at the same time, their words tumbling over each other.

"What?" she asked.

"You go first." He said.

"Would you like to have a seat? Unless you're in a rush and there's somewhere else you'd rather be…"

"Yes thank you and no there isn't." he lied but now that she was in front of him and wasn't running away, Nick wasn't about to go without at least speaking his mind and hoping she still felt the same. The waitress came to take his order and he placed his order to go but told her to hold off until he was ready to leave and then grabbed an empty chair from an empty table and placed it opposite Adalind.

"Mommy, I need more syrup." Diana turned to her mother indignantly and Nick watched as the syrup from behind the counter began to shake.

"No Sweetie, remember what I told, as long as we are not at home, we do not use our abilities," was Adalind's soft rebuke towards her daughter.

Diana sulked but listened to her mother.

"Instead, go over to the nice lady at the table and ask her nicely."

"Okay, Mommy." Diana jumped onto her feet and headed towards the counter while Adalind kept a watchful eye over her every move. He could see that she was doing her best with her precocious daughter.

"I've been dying to call you." He said unabashedly once alone with Adalind. "…To tell me the spell had worked?"

"To tell you how much I miss you," he corrected her.

"What about your abilities, are they back?" she asked with a sudden hitch of her voice. She was clearly concerned about him. He remembered her reaction whenever he came home from work black and blue. Perhaps it wasn't too late for them just yet, he thought hopefully.

"The spell worked, but it's not like it was before." He said.

"What do you mean? She asked him fearfully.

"Adalind, I never stopped loving you." He placed his hand over hers, curling his fingers so she wouldn't pull back.

"Nick…." He thought he heard her protest but felt her hand curl tightly around his own and then smiled.

"Come home with me?" he asked, that question catching him by surprise as much as it did Adalind.

"I can't do that."

"But there's nothing stopping you. I love you and I know you love me too so come home. It hasn't been the same since you two left. The loft doesn't even feel like a home to me anymore. It's just cold and empty without your smile and laughter ringing throughout the whole place. There's a hole right here I cannot fill and it's pointless to even try when I know exactly what I need to make me whole again. We were wrong; it wasn't my Grimm abilities that made me whole, it was you…and Diana."

She could barely look at him as he spoke. When she looked up, she batted the moisture from her eyes, "Sean called me this morning. He says wants to see Diana."

Damnit.

"I think that's actually my fault. I never told him about getting my sight back. He knew I had been looking for you for months and then this morning I saw him woge." Nick confessed.

"He must have put two and two together. Sean knew where Diana was this whole time. He had made some sort of deal with his cousin. I think he's been searching for Diana since news of Viktor's demise broke."

"And what did you tell him?"

"I told him he couldn't push me and I'd call him. I'm not going to let him order me around anymore. He'll see Diana only when I deem it fit to do so, it's my terms and nothing less."

"I'm proud of you," he smiled and she squeezed his hand in response.

"What about Diana, what have you told her?" he asked her.

"Not much. But she's so much more perceptive and I like. I didn't even have to say anything and already she'd figured it out."

Adalind had realised that her daughter's abilities were growing at the same rate as her physical body but clearly, that wasn't her concern. He sensed Adalind was afraid of how Diana used her powers. Nick had gotten a glimpse of this in Vienna and it had scared the crap out of him, that that little girl had so much power and wasn't averse to using it against people no matter what.

"Whatever you do, know that I am here for you both. Call me, day or night. I'll be there especially if Renard bothers you in any way…" he offered.

Adalind smiled at him, "Thank you."

Diana soon re-joined them at the table with fresh maple syrup. They both watched her as she spread it around it liberally on her soggy waffle.

"Here you are ma'am." The same waitress that took his order stopped in front of their table, depositing Adalind's bacon and eggs and Nick's coffee, placing two Styrofoam cups in front of him.

"I told you to wait," He told the waitress.

""Oh sorry sir…"

"It's okay." He sighed in resignation and waited until the waitress was gone before he asked Adalind to come home with him once more but he never got a chance.

Adalind's nose was turned up away from the table as if something on it stunk up her nose. She fidgeted in her seat and Nick watched as her face almost turn green.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Yeah…I'm fine. I think I may have a stomach bug or something." She said as she took a bite of her food but dropped the fork immediately. Spitting everything into a serviette, "I think I'm going to be…."

Before she finished her sentence, she was on oh her feet, running towards the bathroom.

"Mommy?" Diana asked looking at the back of Adalind's as she disappeared behind the ladies, bathroom door.

"It's okay, Diana. Your mother's going to be fine. She'll be back before you know it." He said calmly.

"I know. It's the baby." Diana said while a deadpan expression.

"…The 'what'?" Nick asked in shock.

"Mommy is carrying a baby in her belly. I'm going to have a brother!"

*/*/*

Adalind upended her whole stomach as she emptied its contents in the toilet bowl while holding back her hair from her face. She felt like a truck had ridden over her, twice. Her body was aching, like it was fighting her. This wasn't a stomach bug she thought. Adalind cleaned herself up and made herself as presentable as she could and headed back towards the dining room. But didn't get beyond the bathroom door as the suffocating smells from the kitchen assaulted her sense once more and she returned to her bathroom stall to vomit what little was left in her stomach.

Adalind groaned. She had no idea how long she'd hovered over that toiled bowl when she heard Nick banging on the main bathroom door asking if she was alright.

"I hope so…" she coughed wearily. "I'll be out in a minute," She assured him.

"I'm not leaving this door until I see it for myself!" He sounded like he was annoyed with her over something but she was rather preoccupied with her queasy stomach ruining her morning to decipher his sudden change in attitude.

Five minutes later she stared at her sorry reflecting in the mirror. She looked terrible. The first thing she would do when she got home would be to get in bed and sleep for a month. She'd had enough of excitement for one day, she thought as she willed hers stomach to behave. What was wrong with her?

After another touch up of her makeup, she opened the bathroom door slightly and saw an extremely agitated Nick pacing a couple of steps back and forth several feet away from the bathroom door and Diana, clung to his hand, watching him closely. The scene made her heart burst as she watched their closeness. They looked like father and daughter….Adalind gasped. She looked at Nick once more and quickly shut the door as she did the math. No, it wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible, she panicked. He was a Grimm and she was hexenbiest, surely, it wasn't possible for the two to conceive a child together?It took her a couple of minutes to calm herself down. She simply couldn't believe it, she, pregnant again.

As she walked back to the table, she heard her daughter's jubilant voice call to her. They had returned to their seats after waiting for so long Nick got to his feet immediately upon seeing her but she couldn't look at him. Instead, she flashed Diana a queasy but firm smile. Nick looked as pale as a ghost. His searching eyes demanding, yearning to know what was wrong with her? Unlike Diana, he wasn't pacified by her weak attempt to appear normal and add the fact that she was pregnant with his baby send her head spinning.

"Honey. I see that you've finished all your food." Adalind turned to Diana

"Yes I did. I'm a big girl now. I didn't have ask for help."

"She insisted that she was more than capable." Nick added as unaffected as possible but he couldn't fool her.

She'd grown so in tuned with his emotions that not even getting his Grimm back changed that. It calmed her a bit, knowing he was so worried about her. Adalind wanted to take him in her arms, kiss him senseless to make up for the month they had been apart but she remained rooted next to her daughter. She had to tell him, she thought nervously but each time she opened her lips the words refused to come out. What if she was wrong and she wasn't pregnant? What if this was nothing more than the worst case of indigestion, she hadn't been sleeping well over the past few days with her attempts to perfect the spell for Diana's records. Perhaps her sickness was brought on by latent exhaustion; it would be cruel to say something and for it to turn out false. Adalind's hand quickly covered her abdomen protectively.

She was rescued by Nick's phone ringing in his pocket. He took it out to see who it was, "It's Hank. I guess that's my cue." He said but he didn't want to leave her, his eyes told her just as much.

"Go ahead and answer, he's probably wondering where you've been this whole time."

"Hey…right now? Alright…on my way…." He said then hung up.

"You're leaving?" she asked him

She didn't want him to but had no idea how to say it.

"It's time for us to get going as well. Sweetheart, get your things together." She said as she left several notes inside her bill on the table.

"I guess I will walk you out."

"I'd really appreciate that." She said earnestly taking Diana's hand and headed towards the door with Nick following closely behind him.

They got to her car and Nick, strapped Diana on to her seat before brushing his lips gently on her forehead.

"Goodbye Sweetheart."

"Goodbye."

Adalind smiled nervously at the sight of them and pictured him doing the same to their child. She realized that she badly wanted to be pregnant with his baby, more than anything in the world but that was asking for a world of trouble. It was bad enough to be in love with a Grimm and to have to keep those thoughts and feelings to herself. Bringing a hexenbiest-Grimm hybrid child into the world was unthinkable. She, or he would be hunted for the rest of his life by radical groups like the Secundum Naturae Ordinem Wesen, or Wesenrein for short, could she really condemn her baby to that life, no matter how much she wanted him or loved him?

"Addie? Are you even listening?"
"What did you say?" She snapped back to the present.

"You look like you're million miles away. Penny for your thoughts?"

"I was just thinking…."

"…About?"

"About how crazy our live have gotten lately. I tried to kill you; I almost killed your friends and Juliette. I was a horrible person and you were right to hate me. And then I had Diana, lost her and got her back thanks to you. Then there's you. I love you so very much it literally hurts. I didn't mean to fall in love but I did. And now…."

"Hey, hey, it's okay." He said, circling his arms around her. She didn't resist him, in fact she longed for him all the more but her mind warred against her heart more furiously.

"No, Nick it's not okay. A Grimm and a Hexenbiest? It's unheard of and there are people who are against any mixing of species, none more so than with Grimms. Pfft! We can't even be friends let alone seen together in public. I know what happened to your friends, or rather what almost happened. The wesenrein went after Monroe. I will die if anything happened to you and…." It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him he was going to be a father, that he was tied to her once more.

"I can take care of myself and in any case, Monroe and Rosalee are okay and they are very happy. We could be too if you will only let us. There's nothing to worry about" He said.

"I can't help myself."

"Then stop…." He pleaded.

"I'm pregnant!" She finally burst.

Adalind watched as Nick smiled.

"I know, Diana told me."

"Diana?"

"Apparently she's known it for a while now."

And with the speed of lightning, Nick's lips were upon hers, ravaging her senses to naught. When he eventually pulled back, her lips were swollen red, cheeks flushed like a warm summer's day and out of breath but Nick held her tightly.

"About what I asked you earlier…forget it." He said abruptly.

"What?" she was confused.

"Adalind Schade would you do me the honour of marrying me and becoming my wife? I have long since given you my heart and soul, you would make me the happiest man on earth if you took my name as well and we can finally be a family, you, me, Diana and our child." He said with his voice deep with emotion.

"God, a million times yes!" she confessed aloud "I love you so much!"

"I love you too." He said as he peppered her lips with more kisses.

After several gloriously blissful minutes, Adalind turned to her fiancé and asked, "If Diana knew all along, do you think she knows the sex of the baby?" Adalind wondered.

"She said it's a…"

"No, don't tell me!" She stopped him before saying anymore.

However looking at the gleam in Nick's eye, Adalind knew the answer.