"What do you know… it's alive."

Nick blinked blearily into the morning light, grimacing at a rather awake Renard. From the way the other man was dressed and looked, he had already been up for a while, gone out for a jog and had taken his shower. Hair damp, wearing his dress pants and shirt, the tie still off, Sean smiled at him.

"What time is it?" Nick groaned.

"Seven-twenty."

He groaned again, flopping back into the bed. "I hate you."

Sean sat down on the mattress and leaned over the other man, kissing him. "No, you don't."

"I do," Nick insisted. "Early bird."

It got him another kiss, then Sean got up. "I'll make coffee."

Nick sighed and finally peeled out of bed, muttering to himself. He didn't have to be in until nine and he usually had coffee on the way and a bagel at the precinct. He could have slept another thirty minutes.

He showered and quickly dried himself off, then dressed. The smell of coffee was already in the air and Renard was reading the newspaper. Nick finally joined him and Sean gave him an approving look.

For a moment he did nothing, then he pulled the Grimm against him, placing a gentle kiss against one temple.

"You can't let this linger, Nick," he murmured.

Kelly. The coins. All those revelations.

"I won't."

It had been a bad week. A really bad week.

"You know there are ways to find her again," Sean said after a while, breaching a topic he wished he had already wrapped up, pushed into a drawer, locked it and thrown away the key..

"I know. And I won't. She knows where to find me should she ever want to."

"She is your mother, Nick."

"She feels like a stranger."

They had had that conversation before. This time Nick's expression was close to final. Renard was secretly relieved. There was actually no alternative for his Grimm. All he could do was be there when the memories were too overpowering again.

Nothing else.

XX X x XXX X x XXX X x XXX X x XXX X x XXX X x X

The forest around her was dense, old and barely touched by humans. A few hiking trails led into the deeper areas where only the more adventurous hikers and the rangers went. Now and then she met some wildlife that either watched her curiously or darted off.

Kelly had found the two coins Nick had hidden in this remote location and she knew that retrieving the third was going to be difficult, maybe an impossibility if she didn't employ help.

Help she couldn't use.

The coins would have anyone under their spell in a matter of moments.

So she was on her own.

If she destroyed two at least, the world was a safer place. Her son would be safer. She could spread the word that she had disposed of the unholy metal. And she could continue her hunt for the killers of her husband and best friend.

It meant leaving Nick on his own, with the Protector of Portland, and his strange family of friends.

A barely audible noise alerted her to a presence and she tensed as her senses picked up a wesen. From the eddies she caught she knew the revelation had been intentional, that shields had been dropped.

"You've come a long way," she told the silent forest.

Shadows moved and she met the green eyes of the Guardian of Portland. He was dressed in black, his features sharper than a human, but he hadn't dropped his façade, simply given her a heads-up by letting a little of himself show. Kelly knew that he was very well able to sneak up on her and kill a Grimm.

She wondered if the unfassbar was around, too. Maybe. Like a silent bodyguard.

"You are leaving," he stated.

"Not yet."

"It's impossible to get to the third coin."

"Did you try?" she taunted.

The sharp eyes narrowed, a glimmer of gold in their depths. "No."

"It's difficult, but maybe not impossible," she said, eyes darting around the forest, looking for hexenbiester or any other lackeys.

"I came alone," Renard stated.

"And I should believe you why?"

"I have no reason to lie to you. Your death won't serve a purpose."

She smiled darkly. "It would send Nick back to you completely."

The regnant's face was unreadable.

"What do you want?" the Grimm asked.

"I want to know if you are going to see him again before you leave."

"What is it to you?"

"The question should be, what is it to him, Grimm."

Pain stabbed her and she refused to let it show. Kelly knew what she had done, what emotions she had freed. She felt them, too.

"If I stay I will endanger him. And your territory."

Renard smiled, a terrifying twist of lips that let fangs peek through. "You think I would let it come to that?"

"No," Kelly answered truthfully, very much aware that he wouldn't. To a Guardian his Protectorate came first. To this one Nick did on top of that. "And you know I need to destroy the coins."

He inclined his head. "Tell him," he only said as he turned to leave.

Then he disappeared once more, the forest swallowing him up. She strained her senses for a whiff of the wesen, but she caught nothing.

"I will," Kelly only said softly.

XX X x XXX X x XXX X x XXX X x XXX X x XXX X x X

She hadn't needed the wesen bound to her son to tell her what to do.

Kelly had looked for her son at his home, where he hadn't been. Instead she had nearly given an eisbiber a heart attack. The man had repaired a window, painting the frame, and he had almost fallen off his ladder, moving away from her.

"Don't kill me!" the eisbiber exclaimed. "Nick said I could be here! He didn't really ask me to do this, but his window was leaky and with winter coming and since I had some time and please, please, I have a family, a wife and three children, please!"

She regarded him curiously. "I'm not here to kill you. You are Bud, right?"

He whimpered in terror and nodded.

"You helped my son with his house."

"Oh, no, not really. I mean, he didn't need my help. A Grimm never needs a wesen's help. We wouldn't… I wouldn't… he talked to you about me? Oh god, please, I'm just going to leave now, okay?"

She wondered just how badly her vibes were when a wesen who Nick claimed had been around him without showing such terror and almost-groveling was reduced to this. Eisbiber weren't on a Grimm's radar. They were peaceful, hard workers, and mostly victims.

"Is Nick home?"

"N-no…"

"Do you know where he is?"

He shook his head. Kelly sighed.

"You don't have to leave. Should he be back before I found him, please tell him to call me."

"Call…?"

"He knows who I am, eisbiber."

"Of course." Bud nodded vigorously.

She turned and stopped after three steps, coming almost face to face with a woman who was clearly pregnant – and carrying a baseball bat. She looked determined, bravely facing Kelly, who saw brief shifts to maushertz and back.

Kelly smiled a little.

Strange dynamics, yes, but she was slowly seeing the appeal of it. Nick had a row of defenders who weren't afraid of showing a little force. A pick-up stopped behind the maushertz woman and a man got out. He openly showed that he was a hare for a moment, then scowled at Kelly.

"Nick isn't home," he proclaimed.

Unlike the woman he wasn't armed.

"I know. And you know who I am."

The woman held on tighter to the baseball bat.

"Nothing happened, Zoe!" Bud called, hurrying over and waving at the determined maushertz. "She didn't do any harm."

"She does harm by just being here!" Zoe announced angrily.

iFeisty little thing/i, Kelly thought.

She wondered if her ancestors had some reinigen mixed into the bloodline. Maushertz weren't known for defending anyone but their family. She would die to protect her child, but to threaten a Grimm because of another Grimm or an eisbiber? Unheard of.

"I will leave now," Kelly simply said and turned, aware that a club to the head wouldn't be healthy, even for a Grimm, but she trusted in the two wesen not to take advantage of the situation.

Nothing happened.

She glanced back, saw Bud talking animatedly to Zoe and the hare.

Strange dynamics indeed.

X

She left the area, mentally going through possible places where Nick might be. He wasn't at work, that much she knew. He could be at his mate's place, which meant calling Renard and asking. Or he was somewhere in Portland, doing whatever, maybe even on a hunt.

A thought struck her and she headed for a different address, one a contact had revealed to her.

X

Monroe had a quaint little house across from the forest park. It didn't stand out in any way, but the car parked in front of it told Kelly Burkhardt that her son was here. She walked across the road and up the stairs, hairs standing on end. She was walking into the territory of a blutbad where her son currently was and it went against everything she had ever been taught. Blutbaden were vicious killers. You didn't make friends with them; you cut their heads off.

Before she could knock the door was opened and she met the clear, gray eyes of her son. She caught a glimpse of the blutbad a few feet away, looking wide-eyed and uncomfortable.

"Mom," Nick said, pulling the door shut behind her. "What are you doing here?"

There was so much hope in his expressive face, so much pain, so much… everything. Kelly knew she was going to hurt him, because she couldn't stay, she couldn't be his mother, couldn't be his teacher.

And he didn't need her as such. She hadn't been there as a mother, he didn't need a teacher, but as family… as the only living relative left… She felt his anguish, his pain, his desperation. It was what she had felt ever since revealing herself to Nick.

"I have to go," she said softly.

Nick's face crumbled a little. "Why?" he asked.

"I have two of the three coins. I might never get to the third. Destroying two will be for the best."

"So you have to leave."

"Yes." She reached out, caressing his cheek, feeling a painful knot in her chest. This was her son; she had raised him for twelve years. This was Nick and she had missed him for eighteen long years after that. "I wish I didn't have to, Nick. But it's too dangerous. For all of us."

"I know," he said, voice choking up.

Kelly fought her own tears. She knew it had to be. She knew he was safe in Portland; as safe as a Grimm could get anyway. He ahd friends and allies and… and a mate.

"Don't make the same mistakes I did. Don't leave the people you trust and love."

"Even if it puts them in danger?"

"Your blutbad friend can take care of himself. He might not be a fighter like most of his violent kind, but he can look out for himself. You told me he already did. The regnant is very well able to take care of himself. He's a Protector and that's what he does. He will defend this city and your to the blood. The others… Wesen are survivors. Those around you more than many. You cannot save everyone. I learned that the hard way."

Nick's eyes were liquid, expressing all he felt. "I thought about you all my life. Every day. Wondering… Now, having you back in it, I don't want to let you go again."

Kelly met those eyes, clearly fighting back her own, very emotional response. She opened her arms and Nick slid into the hug, holding on tight. She had caused him so much pain, back then and now. And he had fought all his life to come out of this abyss. With Kelly's return, the pain had come back and she had only added to it, would add to it now that she was leaving.

"I'll come back if I can," she whispered, swallowing her pain.

He nodded wordlessly against her shoulder.

When they separated Kelly smiled. "You're so like your father."

Nick had no answer, couldn't think of anything to say.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you, too."

She stepped back, every line in her face expressing sorrow. Nick just stood there, watching her walk away.

tbc...