AN: I'm a pushover. Here's the next one. A bit o'fluff.

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"You all right?" Hank asked.

Nick looked up blearily from the computer monitor and rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah. What makes you say that?"

"You look half-dead. You worried about Diana?"

"No, not any more than usual. Why?"

"You look like you didn't get much sleep, that's why."

Ah.

Yes, well, that had been due to late-into-the-night discussions with the realtor, then about moving, what they would do with the loft, Kelly, Diana, the house they had placed an offer on, and then a nice bout of engagement/housebuying/child-coming-and-no-idea-when-it-will-happen-again sex, which Nick made sure to draw out and enjoy as he didn't see it happening anytime soon for a while.

"Yeah, stayed up late, talking."

"Talking?" Hank replied, disbelievingly. "I know what that means," and he grabbed his coffee in disgust.

"What?" Nick said.

"Nothing. I miss talking," Hank remarked. "Talking into the night…the morning…the day…those furious talks and those nice slow romantic talks—"

"Okay, well, thank you…for that," Nick said, waving his hand for Hank to stop.

"I never knew you were so chatty until you met Adalind," Hank said with a smirk, and Nick flashed him a look.

"What? I like to talk," Nick said, smile playing on his lips. "Talking's nice sometimes."

"So do I."

"As it happens I had a reason for talking," Nick explained.

"Do you need a reason to talk?" Hank asked. "Do you two find it easier?"

"Okay," Nick said, closing his eyes, and caught Hank snickering at him.

"Funny. The reason why no one wants to talk to you is becoming clearer," Nick said rudely and Hank snorted as he leaned back in his chair. "And we were actually conversing, for one, and another, as it happens, one of the reasons is I am getting married. I think."

"What?" Hank asked sitting up. "When did this happen?"

"Last night."

"You asked Adalind to marry you?"

"Yes. Apparently."

"Apparently? You don't know?"

"No, I know. We were discussing some things—Diana, and the future—and marriage came up—and somehow or another we wound up engaged, I guess."

"You guess? Man if I had known you were so bad at asking I could have helped you more with Juliette. No wonder she said no," Hank said, and Nick gave him a dirty look. "What? Too soon to joke?"

"You're hilarious."

"Who brought up getting married?"

"I…did," Nick admitted, wondering where Hank was going with this question.

"No surprise there," Hank said, taking a sip of his coffee. "You're sure about this? It's a big step."

"Yeah," Nick said.

"You want to make Adalind your wife?" Hank insisted.

"Yes, I do," he said, looking away from Hank, suddenly afraid he would see censure or judgment there. "I mean, we've already got a kid together. We've been living together for the last two years. It's been great. This seems like the right step for us."

"Congratulations," Hank said, and Nick glanced up, meeting his eyes, seeing sincerity there. He nodded once in acknowledgment.

"Thanks."

"So….who's gonna be your best man?" Hank asked, looking at Nick, and Nick barked out a laugh.

"Dude, I just got engaged." Sort of. I think, he thought.

"Don't say Monroe, do not say Monroe. I know you were best man at his wedding but I've known you longer. And let's not forget, I was with you the first time you saw Adalind."

"Oh, you mean when you were checking her out."

"You were checking her out, too."

"No, I was profiling her."

"Hey, couch it in whatever fancy terminology you like but you were drooling a little, too."

"Oh my god, I was with Juliette. How dare you?" Nick said, leaning back in his own chair to stare at Hank in mock offense. He opened his mouth to reply when he caught sight of Adalind breezing into the station, for the second time in a week. This time she stopped at Nick's desk, her intended destination.

She looked very well put together, having taken great care this morning to look sophisticated, capable, and in control. She was wearing a black suit, one with a flare in the skirt, and a cream colored silk blouse with a vertically pleated neck. She wore platform four-inch heels, and another expensive Hermes scarf, gold earrings and watch, and her hair was fixed in wavy curls.

"Hey Hank," she said to him and Hank raised his coffee in salute, and then turned to Nick, digging into her briefcase. "I've got some papers for you to sign."

"Pre-nup already?"

"What?" Adalind asked, looking at Hank in confusion.

"Nothing," Nick said, throwing his pen at Hank. "What do you got?"

"The realtor brought this by. They accepted our bid on the house!" she said, bouncing excitedly.

"What?" Nick said, looking up at her in surprise.

"What?" Hank said. "Realtor?"

"Oh yeah, apparently, I bought a house last night, too," Nick said to him.

"Wow, you just had a banner night. Sure you weren't drunk?"

Nick glared, and Adalind looked at him and Hank in confusion.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"I hear congratulations are in order," Hank told Adalind.

"Uh, sure?" she said hesitantly, still uncertain as to what he was talking about.

"I told him we got engaged…or something."

"Oh," she replied, smiling. "Yes, thank you."

"I need your pen," Nick said, taking her expensive executive pen from her hand and signing his name by the sticky flag arrow indicating sign here. "This is nice," Nick remarked, writing with it.

"Thanks. I want it back."

"So, let's see the ring," Hank said, looking at Adalind. Nick stopped writing and looked up.

"I didn't—"

"I don't have—" Adalind began at the same time, shaking her head and holding up her bare ring finger for inspection.

"Wow. No ring. Man, you are horrible at this," Hank told him.

"Sorry, I haven't had as much practice as you," Nick replied acidly.

"Mm, you're halfway there," he said, and grinned when Nick and Adalind looked at him.

"He's not invited to the wedding," Nick said, as Adalind flipped a couple of pages and pointed to the next section.

"That hurts, man."

"I was thinking we should just elope, or go down to the courthouse. Date and initial."

Nick looked at her in surprise, and then back down to where she was pointing. "Right. Okay."

That was surprising. Obviously they still had some things to discuss.

"Really? No ring? You?" Hank said after a moment and Nick thought about what it would be like to stab Hank with Adalind's perfectly weighted and balanced pen. He tossed the pen down on his desk, and opened one of the drawers.

"Here," he said, pulling out a key ring with two keys attached. He removed the two keys, to what he had no idea, they had been in the desk when it had been assigned to him, and grabbed Adalind's left hand.

"With this keyring ring I thee wed," Nick said, offering it to Adalind, who wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"No thanks, you promised me cubic zirconia, I'm going to hold out."

"Your loss," Nick said, glaring at Hank and picking up his pen again.

"Cubic zirconia—seriously, Nick? Where did I go wrong with you?" Hank said, shaking his head.

"All about the bling, aren't you," Nick said, glancing up at Adalind, hiding a smile. "Now I see where Diana gets it from."

Adalind looked at him in surprise.

"Diana? Why do you say that?"

"Every time I've seen her she's been dressed in something sparkly. Plus, I asked her if she liked sparkles, and she said yes."

"I didn't know that," Adalind said, a strange lilt to her voice, and Nick looked up at her in concern. "What else does she like?"

Nick suddenly wondered what it was like to have to ask the man who helped take her daughter away from her what that daughter was like.

"I…honestly don't know. I know nothing about little girls and even less about her. The color pink, maybe. Purple. Not sure. She didn't have a whole lot of personal effects in her room, but those were the two colors it was decorated in. Don't know if that's just what they picked for her or if she picked it."

"Hmm," Adalind replied, looking pensive.

"You go to get her this afternoon?" Hank asked.

"Yeah," Nick said, Adalind nodding, emotions still evident on her face.

"Captain going with you?" he asked Nick, and Nick shook his head. Renard had still expressed some concern about the wisdom of taking Diana essentially out of hiding, which Adalind had taken to be disapproval or lack of support with what she wanted, and Nick had taken to be maybe a more prudent vein of thought. Renard was just as anxious as she was to see his daughter, though, and Nick thought it might be wise to not mistake his caution for lack of caring.

"I don't think Meisner even wanted me or Adalind to go to the wall, but we've both been there, not to mention I think Adalind would have come across the table had he said no," Nick remarked looking at her. "He doesn't want any one already unfamiliar with the Wall there."

"I have to wait in the car," Adalind said stiffly, still angry over Meisner's command. That had been all he had been willing to concede to Adalind, and Nick in some ways couldn't blame him for wanting to avoid what surely would be a highly emotional event.

"We'll meet the Captain at his house after that," Nick said, answering Hank's question. "That it?" he asked, looking up, and she flipped a couple of more pages and pointed again.

"Sign and date," she said and Nick complied, and looked at Hank who was shaking his head at the two of them.

"What?" Nick asked testily.

"Nothing."

"That's it," Adalind said, taking the papers when he sat back in his chair and looked at her expectantly. "In thirty days or less we'll be new homeowners," she said. "Or, I guess I will be. You've already—never mind," she said. "Anyway, that's one thing off the table."

"You've got a busy day, or is Lane and Daniel taking care of everything?"

"No, busy day, but wanted to get down here and get this taken care of so I can get it back to the realtor. Meetings and court at eleven to file a couple of motions, and then a meeting with the Lizstein board after lunch and basically I've got to go back to work and pretend for the next six hours that everything's fine, that I'm not going to see for the first time in three years the daughter that was taken from me."

"Right."

She flashed a smile at Nick, and Hank who was looking at her in concern, too.

"I'll be fine," she said, and both men looked at her disbelievingly. "That's not helping." She leaned down to place a kiss on Nick's cheek, and Nick stood when she pulled back.

"Here I'll walk you out," he said, and she looked at him curiously and bade Hank goodbye.

They walked in silence out into the corridor, Nick's hand on the small of her back guiding her to a spot down the hall and off to the side.

"You going to be okay?"

"Yeah," she said, affecting a bright smile. "Have to be, right?"

"Adalind," he said, and she shook her head.

"No, I have to be. I need to get through the afternoon without…without falling apart…which is what I feel like doing, and just focus on the fact that tonight, my daughter and my son and I are all going to go to sleep tonight under the same roof."

He nodded and pulled her close and he felt her take a deep breath. "I just wish we could get her and just take her straight home with us. I don't want to stop at Sean's. It's so much for her take in, Nick."

"I know, but the captain wants to see her, also. He's waited a long time for her, too."

She made no acknowledgment to his remark, and Nick wondered what thoughts were circling in her mind that she wasn't voicing. She pulled away after a minute.

"I guess I should go, before Berman fires me."

"Yeah, especially now that we've got that house under contract," Nick said, only half-joking.

She had wrangled six weeks of leave out of Berman, Nick not sure what excuse she used, but after promising she would try to continue to work from home, and whatever else she threw in there he had finally relented. She would spend the next month and a half at home with her daughter, becoming acclimated to their new living arrangement and packing for their new home. Nick had burned up a week of his vacation to help move into their new house.

"Right," she said, and Nick ran a hand over her cheek, the one Louis had broken months ago, that had long since healed. She smiled, and placed another kiss on his cheek, then rubbed a finger against the lipstick stain it left there.

"Love you," she said, and stepped away, turning when he replied.

"Me too." An officer from the fifth district Nick had met years before during patrol held the elevator for her and she smiled a secret little smile at Nick and stepped on. Nick didn't miss the look from the officer at Nick and Adalind before the door closed.

He sighed and drifted back into the department, Hank on the phone with someone and Wu hovering nearby.

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"So, let me get this straight," Hank said, breaking the silence. Nick had been dutifully taking some notes on his black notepad as they took in a crime scene. He looked up at Hank inquisitively. "You're basically having another kid with Adalind, you're moving, and you're getting married."

Nick furrowed his brow in annoyance, wondering what the hell that had to do with the murder they were supposed to be investigating.

"Yes."

"You're getting married?" Wu said, looking up from where he was trying to take a fingerprint off one of the victims. "Why am I always the last to know anything. When did this happen?"

"Last night."

"And you're moving?"

"Yeah, he bought a house, apparently, too."

Nick rolled his eyes and flipped his notepad shut.

"When did that happen?"

"Last night."

"Wow…this all happened in one night? Busy night," Wu remarked.

"Yeah. Lots of talking going on." Hank said, and Nick narrowed his eyes.

"No, the thing with Diana's been in the works for almost a week now."

"You know what I mean."

"I guess."

"You can do things in half-measures, you know. It's all right. It doesn't have to be one extreme or another. Maybe see how it goes with Diana. A few months down the line, buy the house, or get married, and then buy the house a few months after that."

"I thought about doing it that way," Nick said.

"You change your mind?"

"Adalind did," Nick said. "I'm just along for the ride."

"Story of your life," Wu said.

"Story of your relationship," Hank said. "You realize, two years ago, you found out you fathered a baby with her, Juliette was a hexenbiest, and someone cut off your mom's head."

No, he supposed, he hadn't really realized it had only been two years since then. Like Kelly it seemed both like it had happened a lot longer and a lot sooner ago than that.

"And now, you're essentially having another kid, moving, and getting married."

"It's nice to see the pendulum swing the other way," Nick said.

"That wasn't the point I was trying to make," Hank said. "I was trying to say that maybe you don't have to do everything so intense and piled on another."

"At this point in my life? Honestly where's the fun in that? I'm going to get a child I have no idea how to parent, a house I can barely afford, and a wife…I barely know how to handle."

"Yeah, you already sound married."

Nick smiled wryly.

"So when are you getting married?" Wu asked.

"We haven't set a date. We literally just got engaged like fourteen hours ago, Wu."

"He hasn't even bought her a ring."

"You haven't bought her a ring?" Wu exclaimed.

"I never said I haven't bought her a ring," Nick said, turning to look at the room, his back to the guys so he wouldn't see Hank's look of surprise (too late) or Wu's expression of disbelief. "Just that I haven't given her one."

"Wow. You've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you?" Hank said, and Nick glanced back at the guys.

"A little bit."

"It's not Juliette's ring, is it?" Hank asked, and Nick flashed a dark look at him.

"No, it's not Juliette's ring."

"Just checking. They get mad when you do that."

Nick and Wu looked at Hank.

"What? Take it from me," Hank said, throwing up both hands to emphasize his point. Wu stared at him a moment longer and then looked away.

"What did you do with Juliette's ring?" Wu asked.

Nick opened his notepad again and scribbled a note.

"I…pawned it to put a down payment on Adalind's ring."

"Wow," Wu said.

"Okay," Hank said.

"What?"

"Nothing. That's cool."

"Sure. Right," Wu agreed.

"I'm not made of money, you know," Nick said.

"No, I completely understand. I'm still paying on ex-wives' rings three and four," and Nick and Wu looked at him.

"Maybe that will help deter any more hasty marital decisions," Nick remarked pointedly.

"Of course it will. I can't afford any more wives, much less rings," Hank retorted.

"So when are you going to give her the ring?"

"I don't know. We've got enough going on with Diana coming to live with us and moving."

"So…is Hank going to be best man? Or Monroe?" Wu asked, looking at Hank.

"He won't say," Hank said, and Nick looked up at the sky.

"Interesting," Wu said. "I would hope to merit an invitation at least," Wu remarked, and Nick rolled his eyes.

"You'll be the first to know when we figure something out," he said, underlining what he wrote in his notepad.

"We ready to head back?"

"Yeah," Hank said, giving Nick a look and Nick followed him back to the car, with one final glance at his notes.

Look into eloping.

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(poetry/slogan courtesy of a dusty English degree and yours truly)

(Yes, sometimes I only amuse myself.)

(But if I did amuse you, please take a moment and let me know.)