AN: Story is finally finito on my end, so chapters may come a more quickly. Then again, maybe not.

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Nick looked up from where he was assisting Kelly with his dinner when the elevator motor sounded, eyebrows lifting in surprise when a few moments later, Adalind raised the safety gate and stepped off.

"Hey," he said, and Kelly cried out "Mama!" enthusiastically.

"You're home early," Nick said, checking his watch, which read 6:47 p.m. on the dial.

"Yeah," she agreed, tossing her briefcase on the counter and biting her lip.

"Everything okay?" Nick asked, noticing her expression. She had been anxious and irritable and preoccupied ever since their talk with Meisner. He stood up from the table and strode towards her.

"We need to start getting everything ready for Diana," Adalind said.

It had been two days since their conversation with Meisner. In a little over a day, Adalind would join Nick at the Wall and lay eyes on her daughter for the first time in three years.

"Well, we've got the guest room ready to go," Nick started and stopped when Adalind flashed him a look.

"No. That's not—it's not good enough. The guest room? Is this something just temporary?" she asked. Nick furrowed his brow in confusion, not sure what she was getting at.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're acting like she's just visiting, Nick, until we decide this little experiment isn't going to work!"

"What are you talking about?" Nick exclaimed.

"I'm talking about Sean's right, Nick. There's no room here for another child. There's barely room for Kelly now."

"So what are you saying? You want to move? Tonight?"

"Yes. Yes, I want to move. We need to start acting like this isn't a summer vacation for her. That we're serious about having her back into our lives and being a part of our family."

Nick snorted. "Okay, fine, fine, fine." He held up his hands in submission. "Sure. We can move, but Adalind it's not like we're going to be able to find a house and move into it in the next four hours."

"I've found us a house."

Nick did a double-take. "Uh, what?"

"I've found us a house."

"You found us a house," he repeated. Would he ever stop being surprised?

"Uh-huh, here," she said, pulling out a laptop and turning it on. Nick watched her tap a few keys and a moment later the browser came up, a large craftsman style home, typical of Portland and the wooded area surrounding the city, came on screen. It appeared to be fairly newly built, perhaps ten years old and Nick looked at Adalind again and bent forward to click through the pictures.

"See, it's perfect. It's four bedrooms, three baths, a nice kitchen, a huge yard, there's a study for my work, and two fireplaces—look at that, one in the master bedroom—walk in closets. It's everything we need!"

Nick finished scrolling through the pics and straightened, feeling slightly overwhelmed, when he caught sight of the price.

"It's a fortune," he said, looking at the listing. "Adalind, I can't afford this." He wasn't even sure with their combined income if they could afford it. She had adapted well to their comparatively simplistic living when they had first moved to the loft; had no choice in the matter really. The only thing that mattered was the safety and well-being of their son, not the creature comforts, but he was reminded she was used to far cushier surroundings than what they had been living with for the last couple of years. She had spent a lot of time and money to upgrade the loft into something that was more in line with what she preferred, but her dress and overall appearance belied her more champagne tastes.

"Nick! It's in a great school district," she said, and Nick was also reminded that in three years those would be things that would matter greatly. Hell, in a few months, with Diana looking like a first grader.

"Adalind," he said, sighing, wondering how he was going to be the voice of reason on this. "It is a beautiful house," he admitted, and she grinned triumphantly. "But we can't afford this," and the smile dimmed, disappeared, and she turned away abruptly, snapping the laptop shut.

"Adalind," he pleaded. "I'm not saying we can't move into a house somewhere, but we need to look at something with a slightly smaller price tag. We'll find something, just give it a little time."

"We don't have time, Nick. My daughter is moving in with us in another day. The realtor can show it to us tonight and we can make an offer. The buyer is desperate to move, apparently. We could close on it by the end of the month."

"How desperate?" Nick asked. "Like knock a hundred thousand off the asking price desperate. Two?"

Adalind flashed him another unamused look. "I doubt it, but I think we might be able to get it about thirty thousand or so less."

Nick shook his head, "It's still too much, Adalind, I'm sorry," he added, and she nodded, and moved away from him.

"We could afford it, you know," she said, opening the fridge and pouring herself a glass of wine. "I ran the numbers," she added. "What I make, plus what you make, you still have a little money from when you sold your house before. I still have some money from the bonus Berman gave me on the settlement from the Abermeier case, plus I can withdraw some money from my 401K. We can put down a nice down payment and then really, the house payments are quite reasonable. It's in a great neighborhood, and like I say, the school district is phenomenal," she said, eyeing Nick before taking a large sip of her wine.

Nick frowned. "It's a lot of money, Adalind," he said.

"Is it?"

"Yes, I mean it's a really great house, but how am I going to be able to afford food and electricity, Kelly's daycare, and everything else."

"We would share in that," she replied. "Like we share in raising our son, and…Diana."

Nick looked at her, and she stepped closer and slid an around his neck and pressed her lips against his cheek. "Maybe one day, even, another baby," she added between kisses and he looked at the still closed laptop. "There's plenty of room," she pointed out.

"Yeah, I mean, it's kind of big for us, don't you think?" Nick asked, aware that she was trying to work him over, use her considerable feminine wiles to manipulate him into doing what she wanted. She needn't try so hard, he thought. He had found he hated to disappoint her, did half the unpleasant or difficult things he did in life lately for her anyway, so he wouldn't have to see the realization he wasn't capable of all the things she seemed to believe he was.

"We'll need the space with two…maybe one day three…children," she said, mouth lingering over his jaw, and Nick met her eyes, her mouth connecting with his, the taste of her wine on her lips. She closed her eyes, hands sliding up to his head, mouth opening, urging him to deepen the kiss. He pulled back, knowing that he needed to keep a level head with all they were talking—and not talking—about. He was more susceptible to her manipulations than he liked to let on, was well aware that she had enough influence on him to spin him around and confuse him.

She opened her eyes, searching his, seeing into their depths, perhaps more than Nick was comfortable with. She knew him pretty well now.

He wasn't sure what he wanted to respond with first. The house she was trying to convince him to buy with her. That they both apparently thought about having another child together. The fact he wanted a more committed arrangement before that. That Diana would be essentially a daughter to him, if not in name than in assumption. That he wasn't against that but he was nervous and concerned about his ability to fill that role with such an exceptional child and what her addition would mean for all of them.

He cupped her face with his hands. "One day…maybe, yeah, but we have some other things we need to discuss first."

"Like…putting an offer in on our new house?" she said, fingers sliding through the hair at the nape of his neck. She smiled sweetly at him. Her mouth connected with his again, before he could remind himself to stay focused, not let himself be swayed by her.

"No," he said, breaking away. "I know what you're doing."

"What am I doing?" she asked, eyes wide, a tad too innocently to be believable. He gave her a look and slipped out of her grasp.

"Mama," Kelly hollered, capturing her attention, and Nick realized he was still sitting in his high chair by the table.

"Kell-bell!" Adalind replied, and Nick watched her stride to their son, press a kiss to his cheek. "Kell-bell do you want to see the big yard you can play in?"

"Adalind," Nick said warningly, shaking his head. "We're not buying that house. It's too much for us."

"Daddy thinks we can't afford it, and that it's too big, but he hasn't seen it yet, has he?"

"I just saw pictures of it," Nick replied. "I've seen plenty."

"But not in person. Come on. You can't make an informed decision without truly seeing it first." She grabbed a towel off the counter and cleaned Kelly's face and hands.

"Adalind, I'm not buying a house and we've got some other things we really need to talk about."

"After you've seen the house," she replied, picking Kelly up from his chair and slinging her purse over her other shoulder.

"No, Adalind—" but she kissed him again, cutting him off. She grabbed his hand and started tugging him to the door, Kelly looking at Nick over her shoulder, smiling widely.

"Come on, we're going to be late. I told Emily we would meet her at eight."

"Emily?"

"Our realtor," she explained.

"Adalind," he said with an exasperated sigh.

"What, even if you don't choose this one, we'll need a realtor. You just said we can move."

"I didn't mean this week!"

%%%%%%%%

"Emily, this is Nick," Adalind introduced, and Nick held his hand out with a polite, strained smile.

"Hi," a woman in her fifties, with stylish salt and pepper gray hair and cankles smiled warmly at Nick as she shook his hand.

"So nice to meet you, I told Adalind it's a good thing she contacted me and let me know what you were looking for. This just came up on the market and the buyer is very eager to sell."

Nick looked at Adalind who smiled and set a squirming Kelly down. He ran around the room, anxious to explore, and Nick watched him run to the glass paned French doors, and the windows, his little voice echoing in the large space, and then Nick rolled his eyes as Kelly realized that and began to scream and shriek experimentally, laughing as the sound bounced around the room.

"Sorry," Nick said, and Emily just grinned.

"I have two granddaughters his age, it's okay."

"Oh?" Adalind asked politely.

"Yes, twins," Emily said and watched Nick grab ahold of his son. "As you can see the great room is a nice space for your family. A large, bright room," she indicated the windows and the patio doors, "with the first of two fireplaces we'll see. It's open to the kitchen," and she pointed to that space, "and there's plenty of room for entertaining if you're into that," she added.

"Not really," Nick said, and Adalind fixed him with a glare.

"Yes, of course," she replied, smiling at Emily. She grabbed Nick's free arm and squeezed it, admonishing him, as Emily led them over to the kitchen and breakfast nook, and he said nothing else as they followed Emily around the house.

The house was spectacular in person, Nick could admit. Definitely right up Adalind's alley. And yes, maybe even Nick's. The backyard was huge, large trees framing the lot, a brick patio Nick could imagine Kelly bouncing a ball on. Could imagine Kelly running at top speed around the yard, no need to take weekly sojourns to the park. They could put a playset here, and he could be content for hours, Nick could grill out, invite Monroe and Rosalee and Hank and Wu, and then shook his head abruptly before he got even more carried away.

Once, yes, he had imagined a life like that for himself, free from worry, but that had been before he was a Grimm and now he knew how unlikely that life could be for him. Thought of his own parents, what few memories he could recall of his mother and father and their life before his dad had been killed. They had been normal, or seemed normal, once. Going to ball games, and grilling out, playing catch with his dad every Sunday afternoon, but it had caught up to them. The Grimm/Wesen life, and both of his parents were gone because of it.

He looked around, past the trees, to the other homes beyond. The houses weren't close together, not like where he had lived before. They were separated by large yards, but Nick wondered who their neighbors would be, if he should bother even trying to know. Knowing them hadn't saved the ones who had been killed by the verrat when he had lived with Juliette.

He thought of the verrat again, the risk they were undertaking by having Diana in their lives. They were better off in the loft, he thought. No collateral damage that way. Just the people involved if it went south, and the odds were it would.

"Wait till you see the master bath," Emily said as they climbed the stairs. "There are three more bedrooms upstairs in addition to the master bedroom, one of course would be very nice for your little one," she said winking at Kelly. "One could be a play room and another a guest room. Did you say you had two children?" she asked suddenly, stopping for a moment.

"Yes, a daughter from a previous relationship," Adalind said.

"Oh, that's nice," Emily remarked, and Nick suppressed a sigh. "Well this could be nice for a little girl, don't you think?"

"Mm-hmm," Adalind agreed, giving Nick an inquisitive look as she passed by him on the way to the master suite. He stood in the doorway with Kelly as Emily and Adalind walked around the room, pointing out the fireplace, his and her walk in closets, and the bath.

"There's an unfinished room above the garage that could be a fifth bedroom," Emily added, and circled round and came to a stop in front of Nick and smiled brightly, Nick reciprocating with a weaker version as Emily said, "I've got a few phone calls to make. I'm going to let you both look at your leisure and then you can get with me when you're ready."

"Thank you," Adalind replied, and Nick stepped aside to let her pass and set Kelly down and watched him wander around the room. He was wearing down, would probably be asleep in the next twenty minutes. Adalind smiled at her son, patting his head affectionately as he moved around her, police car in hand, before Kelly kneeled down and began to run it along the carpet.

"Well, it looks like Kelly likes it," Adalind said with a smile that faltered a little when she observed the expression on Nick's face. "Aaaaaaand what do you think?" she asked, looping her arms around his neck.

"You already know what I think, and what my answer is."

"Niiiiick," she said, pulling him into the room. "Come look at it with me."

"I've been looking at it with you," he said.

"No, no, no. Come here. Look at this," she said, dragging him into the bathroom. "Double vanity. No more fighting over the sink in the morning," she said enticingly, and Nick moved when he felt Kelly's hands push against his legs, shoving him out of the way.

"Although, we've had some nice disagreements over that, haven't we?" Adalind added as an afterthought, lips curling, and Nick shrugged, trying to remain unaffected, closing his eyes when he felt her mouth graze his neck. Yes, that had been the source of a couple fantastic mornings. More fodder for staying at the loft, he thought.

He heard a sploosh and then, "Uh-oh." Adalind and Nick broke apart and looked beyond them to Kelly, staring wide-eyed into the toilet bowl. He pointed to it when he met Nick's eyes. "Dada, ma cah," and Nick realized the police car was now submerged.

Nick fished it out of the toilet and rinsed it off in the sink, shaking the water off it when he was done. Kelly reached for it and Nick wiped it on his jeans and handed it back, ignoring Adalind's horrified gasp.

"Kelly!" Nick said right before Kelly threw the car right back into the toilet.

"Uh-oh," Kelly said, looking at Nick again. Nick flashed Adalind a dark look, fished the car out of the toilet and rinsed it off again. He held it away when Kelly came over to him, holding his hands out for it.

"Sorry, buddy, that's it. I'm going to hang on to it." Kelly emitted a high-pitched sound of frustration and indignation. "No," Nick said, and then watched as Kelly plopped down on the floor and threw a tantrum.

"Are we done? I'm ready to go home now," Nick said.

"Nick," Adalind said.

"And," Nick said, handing Adalind the car and bending down to pick Kelly up off the floor. "I think it's past somebody's bedtime."

He tried not to wince as Kelly wailed loudly next to his ear, patting his back distractedly, as he herded Adalind out of the bathroom.

"Nick, I think we really need to consider this. This is a great place for us," she said.

"Adalind," Nick said, annoyed, Kelly still blowing his ear off with his cries.

"Here, give him his car, we can shut the door to the bathroom," Adalind said. She handed Kelly his car and then frowned when Kelly threw it on the floor in a fit of temper. She held her hands out for their son and Nick gladly passed him to her, moving away from them both, as he took a few deep breaths, finally taking note of the room.

"Shhh," Adalind soothed Kelly, gently bouncing him in her arms, before rubbing her hand along his back.

"And you think we should have another one?" Nick said, as though he hadn't thought the same thing. She gave her a dark look of her own.

"You don't?" she asked, still rocking Kelly in her arms.

"We've got enough to deal with him, and now Diana." She looked up at Nick, and he looked away, out the window. He moved towards it, taking in the view of the backyard, and the patio below.

"So you're against another baby, then?" she said, her voice twisted. Nick sighed.

"No," he said, turning to face her. "I'm not against us having another baby one day, but Adalind come on, we're not even married."

"So. We weren't married for this one. Are you saying you want to be married?" she asked, looking at him in surprise.

"Do you?" he asked, realizing he had never solicited her opinion on marriage.

"I'm not against it," she said, drifting closer, Kelly finally calming and lowering the volume to something that didn't induce tears of pain in those around him.

"You want to get married?" she said, and Nick realized this conversation was getting off point a little from what he was trying to focus on.

"Yeah, I mean, I think it would be—one day," he said, "Look—"

"To me?" she said and Nick placed his hands on his hips and gave her a look.

"Who else?"

"I don't know. If you would have asked me that two years ago I would have said anybody else."

"Yes, that's true, but a lot's changed in two years, you know this."

"Tell me about it. Nicholas Burkhardt wants to marry me. Huh," she said, sounding totally floored by the concept. "Mrs. Nicholas Burkhardt. Mrs. Adalind Burkhardt. Adalind Burkhardt. Huh."

She looked up at Nick, and then smiled widely, making Nick's heart start thumping loudly in his chest. She bounced on her tip-toes and pressed her mouth against his.

"You know what would make a great wedding gift? A new house," she said, and grinned at her cleverness, kissing Kelly's cheek, eyes dancing at Nick. Nick rolled his eyes.

"Okay, first off, I haven't asked you yet," Nick said, "and secondly—" but was cut off by Adalind's mouth on his again, her arm looping around his neck, kissing the life out of him.

"Actually, you sort of did," she said when they broke off.

"No I didn't."

"Yeah, you did."

"Really, did Adalind, will you marry me? Pass through my lips at any point?"

"It did now," she said excitedly, kissing him again and Nick smiled despite himself.

"Ha, very clever."

She grinned, Kelly turning his head to look at his mother bouncing excitedly, bouncing him, before she kissed Nick long and deep.

"See, now we have to buy this house," she added when she came up for air. "I mean, this is the spot where you asked me to marry you. We can't let this place go."

"Adalind."

"Nick."

"Oh my god. You're not going to let this go, are you?" Nick said, looking at the ceiling. "Adalind—" he said, breaking off looking around him. "You're telling me we really afford this? You're sure."

"Yes!" she said, running her fingers along his coat. "We can do this. And still afford food. And electricity. And clothes, and toys for the kids and maybe even a vacation once in a while. I have it all on a spreadsheet."

Kids. Plural.

Nick plummeted back to reality and stepped away from her.

"We need to talk about Diana," Nick said, and her enthusiasm dimmed.

"She'll love it here, don't you think? A nice big back yard to play in? Has to be better than that godforsaken place she's in now."

"Adalind, the last time the Verrat tried to get to her, they killed everyone who lived around me. Is that the way you want to ingratiate yourself with our neighbors? I don't know if I can handle that happening again. Those people are dead because of me and what I did."

"Those people are dead because what Eve-Juliette, whatever—did."

"Either way they're still dead, and Diana's at the center of it. We move somewhere we need to be conscious of the risk we can potentially be bringing to the neighborhood."

"We're not so close to the neighbors here as your other house was," Adalind said.

"It's close enough."

She chewed on her lip, and while she was considering her argument to that, Nick decided to go ahead and take the plunge with his next concern.

"What role do you expect me to have with Diana?" Nick asked her.

"What do you mean?" Adalind said.

"I mean, she has a father. Renard. Who doesn't sound overly excited for me to have any part in that. What do you expect from me? What's my role in this? I feel like I'm intruding somehow."

"You're like, her…step-father, I guess," Adalind said, uncertainly. "Depending on when we get married, and I don't give a damn what Sean thinks about it. You actually think he's going to do half the things with Diana you do now with Kelly?"

"Honestly? Yeah, I think he might." She sighed, annoyed, perhaps by the validity of his argument. She still held Renard responsible for taking Diana from her and therefore was loathe to give him any sort of credit for parenting ability or good intentions where she was concerned.

"What's the problem? Do you not want her?" she asked, hurt creeping into her voice, and she hugged Kelly tighter to her defensively.

"No, it's not that," Nick said.

"What? Don't you want her here with us, with our son?"

"I'm not opposed to her being here, Adalind."

"No, maybe you're not opposed, but you're not enthusiastic about it either," she noted. He sighed and looked away, knowing she was becoming irritated with him.

"What do you want me to be?"

"Happy! My daughter is finally back with her mother and people that love her."

"I am happy for you! Do you think I want you to be without your daughter? That I'm trying to keep you from her? I want you to be with your daughter Adalind, and I want you to be with me, and I want your daughter to be with us," he said, drifting closer. "I am concerned, though."

"About?"

"Like it or not, we have another child, Adalind. We need to make sure he's safe too."

"Safe from his sister, you mean?"

"I don't know. If need be, yeah. I'm hoping it doesn't ever come to that."

"And what if it does?"

"Adalind."

"That's what you're asking right? No, Nick, you're right. What if I have to choose between my daughter and my son?" she asked, eyes filling with tears, and Kelly looked at her concernedly, patting her cheek. She looked at him, and then Nick. "What if I have to give her up again? How do I live with myself?"

"Adalind, come here," Nick said, and she let him pull her into his arms.

"You think I haven't run over the scenarios in my head a hundred times? You think I want to put Kelly at risk?"

"Shh," he said, and Kelly patted his cheek, too, and Nick placed a kiss against the chubby palm, pulling Adalind tighter against him. "Listen, I promise you we're going to give her the best home, and the best love and support a little girl can possibly have. We have you, and you're a great mother, and we have Renard, and Renard's mother to help if we need Hexenbiest support. Rosalee and Monroe. Hank and Wu. We've got it covered. And I hope to god because of that we don't ever have to make the choice between Diana or Kelly." She nodded, sniffling, and he felt his shirt grow wet where her face was pressed against him.

"Meisner. We have Meisner, too," Adalind said, and Nick snorted in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me?" he said. "After he hid her from you?"

"Yeah. I know," she said. "But the truth is he's another resource if we need it. If she is too much for us to handle."

Nick shook his head. "Unbelievable," he muttered.

"Don't be jealous," she said.

"I'm not jealous!" Nick exclaimed indignantly. She pulled away and gave him a look.

"You think I don't see the way you look at him anytime we're in a room together?" she said.

"How? How do I look at him?" Nick said.

"Glower. You glower at him. Like you wish you had your cross bow."

"Well, I'm sorry I don't look at him with googly eyes, like some," he retorted, and she smirked.

"First off, I do not look at him with googly eyes—what are you, twelve?—and secondly, I am one hundred percent in love with you. Spoken for as a matter of fact," she said. "Seeing how we've recently decided to take the plunge."

She wiggled her ring finger. "A visual deterrent might help," she suggested, and Nick glowered, to borrow her word.

"Not going to be able to afford it if I buy this place," he said. "I hope you're fond of cubic zirconia."

"Ha," she said with a watery smile.

"I'm told it looks almost just like the real thing," Nick added.

"God, I love you," she said, and Nick started a little at the baseness of her statement. It had not initially been easy for her to confess her feelings for him, so it was shocking sometimes to hear it stated in such a bald statement.

"You're just trying to get me to buy this house," he said, deflecting, and she grinned again, pressing against him, Kelly squirming to be let down.

"True," she said, "but I also love you."

"Mm-hmm."

"And as for Diana…I expect…I hope you'll treat her the same as you do Kelly, and maybe…maybe love her a little like you do Kelly. Even half as much," Adalind said.

"Done and done," Nick said, hoping he wouldn't disappoint her, that the transition would be so easy, but already he was sensing some resentment brewing from Renard with the arrangement he would soon have with Diana in his and Adalind's everyday life. She smiled again, softer and more vulnerable, and Nick bent his head down to kiss her.

"Did we make a decision?"

Nick and Adalind jerked apart, Adalind turning to face Emily who was looking expectantly at them.

"I think so," Adalind said, looking at Nick who rolled his eyes and glanced up at the ceiling again. He ticked a muscle in his jaw for a moment and nodded once, not missing Adalind's ecstatic smile when he looked back down.

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