a/n: A new chapter! Some more details! Lots of love for my wonderful readers and reviews and even the critics. And shout out to all the people who keep giving me a crash course in foreign languages by leaving me wonderful reviews in languages I have to run through google translate. You guys are awesome.

Necessary Sins – Chapter 19

Josh was awake when they reached the hospital but he was loaded up on painkillers and so having a conversation with him was (literally) like trying to interview a stoner. They'd only gotten I to see him because Nick had waved his badge around and told them he was Josh's only living relative. The fact that, through some distant relation this might actually be true was irrelevant but it got them in to see Josh while he was waiting to have his arm plastered and the doctors decided on how best to treat his knee.

According to his chart, which Adalind lifted from the end of Josh's bed as though it was perfectly normal to peruse someone's personal medical files, he'd fractured his arm and cheek, badly twisted his knee (potentially he'd dislocated it and either popped it back in himself or not noticed and it had naturally slid back into place – which suggested it hadn't fully slipped the socket) and cracked a few of his ribs. That didn't take in to account the beating he'd taken and the scratches and bruises the doctors were taking to be from blades but Nick suspected came from claws.

Whatever he'd gotten involved in, it had certainly done a number on Josh and Nick was terrified to think that Trubel could be out there someone as bad or even worse and they had no way to find her.

A nurse came into the room and Adalind lazily placed Josh's chart back into place. Nick went into cop mode immediately, asking her a barrage of questions about Josh's state and (most importantly for Josh's continued safety) when they'd be able to take him home (and by home he meant Monroe's because he and Adalind didn't have anywhere to put him).

'I'm sorry,' the nurse told them. 'He's going to need to spend the night. Can you arrange to have someone watch him?'

They had their backs to the bed so it came as a surprise when Josh spoke in a suddenly sober (pained) voice, 'Oh, guess I do metabolise those quickly.' They spun around and Josh said, 'Ow.' He locked eyes with Nick and the nurse before meeting Adalind's gaze.

She flinched. It wasn't much, hardly noticeable, but Nick was very good at reading Adalind (so long as hormones weren't involved, those things were designed to make men crazier than the women they were tormenting). He peered at Josh intently but couldn't see what she'd obviously seen and Josh didn't seem to have noticed so Nick put it off to ask about later.

The nurse rushed around them to check on him and Nick and Adalind waited patiently while she did her thing. Once she'd left to check up on another patient, Adalind broke the silence with, 'You're a Grimm.'

That explained the flinch then, Nick realised. He supposed the only reason Adalind hadn't woged was because she spent all her time around a Grimm, the knee jerk reaction to suddenly being confronted with one just wasn't there. He wondered if that would keep her safe from other Grimms. It was worth thinking about, her reaction had only been noticeable because he knew her so well, chances were that any other Grimm she came across wouldn't have even noticed. He wondered if there were other ways to tell she was a hexenbiest – aside from the tongue thing. He'd like to think the only person going anywhere near Adalind's tongue would be him and maybe her dentist.

But those were thoughts for later.

Josh was on the bed, holding his unbroken arm against his ribs and wincing every time he breathed. 'Started about a week ago,' he said. 'I thought for sure it wasn't going to happen to me.'

'What happened to you?' It wasn't clear whether he was asking about now or then but Josh seemed to think then was the more important thing to discuss. Nick noted that he didn't seem concerned about Trubel so unless he'd forgotten all about her (which Nick doubted) Josh seemed to think Trubel was in no immediate danger. He started to relax slightly.

'They call themselves Hadrian's Wall,' Josh told them. 'Some sort of government agency that's supposed to deal with wesen, they wanted another Grimm and they wanted to know if they could trigger that part of one.'

'Trigger how?' Adalind asked shrewdly.

Josh shot her a rueful look and it struck Nick that he hadn't required an introduction. 'Adrenalin, I guess,' Josh answered. 'They picked me up at a bar in Tucson, I don't even remember when – it wasn't fun, they did things to me, tried to get me to fight, tried to get me to kill and then I guess they finally got something right because something shifted and now I'm a Grimm like my dad.'

Josh was glossing over a lot of details, that was obvious but Nick wasn't going to force the issue just yet. 'What about tonight?' he waved a hand to indicate all of Josh's injuries.

'I was done,' he said simply. 'I got out.'

'What about Trubel?'

'She's worse off than me,' Josh replied, ruefully.

'What?' Adalind screeched in alarm.

'Oh, I doubt she's hurting like this,' Josh lifted his broken arm with a wince for emphasis, 'but she's a good little Grimm who knows what she's doing. She's valuable to them.'

'I think you need to start at the beginning,' Nick spoke. 'Tell us everything.'

Everything turned out to be not all that complicated and so very complicated at the same time. While Josh's part in it all hadn't started until he left Portland with Trubel, Trubel had already been approached before she left.

'You remember that FBI agent?' Josh asked. 'Chavez?' Nick nodded. 'She kidnapped Trubel off the street one day, really freaked her out, its why she was so eager to leave Portland. She thought if she could get away then she'd be free of them. I don't know if she just thought they'd put her away for that thing with Steward or if she was worried they'd kill her but it was okay for a bit, I went home and Trubel followed.'

'But so did this HW,' Nick surmised.

Josh nodded. 'This time they offered Trubel a job. Huge benefits, lots of money, great tech, it seemed like a good deal.'

'You didn't think so,' Adalind gathered.

Josh shrugged. 'They were interested in me too, at first it was like what you do here, we just investigated wesen related crimes, but then it got more complicated, they'd send me or Trubel out on our own – I think they wanted to see how I'd handle things without being a Grimm or wesen and they wanted Trubel in more dangerous situations. They were testing us.'

'Testing you for what?' He hadn't much liked the sound of Hadrian's Wall when Hank had spoken of it but now, hearing more about it from Josh he knew he didn't like this place at all. Chavez had been right to go around him, if they'd tried any of this on him, he wouldn't have gone down without a fight and he supposed Josh hadn't either, if his injuries were anything to go by.

'HW wants good little Grimm soldiers to blindly follow them. Something big is coming and they want to stand and fight it.'

Nick felt his stomach twist, this was exactly what he'd been afraid of. 'Something big?'

'Black Claw,' Josh explained. 'They're an underground wesen group determined to come out in the open and claim the rights they feel they've been denied. They think wesen should be in power and that the world needs to know them for what they really are.'

Nick and Adalind could only stare blankly at him for a moment. The idea of wesen being out to the public was not something Nick had ever considered before; it wasn't something he wanted to be considering now. The few people he knew who had encountered wesen hadn't necessarily handled it well. People had been shot, killed, eaten, mauled, traded for parts, the list went on and on. It wasn't a pretty picture and he had serious doubts that coming out would improve them any, he imagined there'd be calls to lock them up, to kill them all, declarations that they weren't human, merely animals and should be caged up.

Nick knew that Adalind was someone to be afraid of if you wronged her but that was because he knew she was a powerful hexenbiest who wasn't afraid to fight for what she wanted or to fight back if the world (or someone) wronged her. He didn't like the idea of people being afraid of her, of being afraid of their kid, just because of what she was and not who she was. He absolutely respected anyone smart enough to be wary of her for who she was because he was very away as her former enemy that she could be a vindictive bitch when she wanted to be. He didn't like the idea that someone would hate her and judge her for simply being a hexenbiest.

Though he supposed his ancestors had been doing that for centuries.

'Are they insane?' Adalind demanded suddenly. 'That's a terrible idea.'

Josh nodded and then grimaced. 'That's why HW is trying to stop them.'

'Well, they're not exactly going about it the right way,' Adalind snapped. 'What does Meisner have to do with all of this?'

'Meisner?' Josh asked with surprise. 'How do you know about Meisner?'

'HW approached Hank,' Nick explained. 'They've been blackmailing him for information on me.'

Josh nodded like that made perfect sense and Nick supposed that as he'd been spending so much time dealing with this HW it probably did to him. 'Trubel and I didn't tell them anything they couldn't have already found out themselves – and they find anything they want. Meisner's the head of HW here, Chavez works directly under him.'

'How did that happen?' Adalind wondered. 'He was working for the Resistance last I saw him.'

'There is no Resistance anymore,' Josh answered. 'The Royals pretty much killed them all and Black Claw either killed or turned the rest.'

'Is this Black Claw the ones that have been sending people after Nick and I?'

Josh shrugged. 'Maybe? I don't really hear much about what's going on here – and that's intentional – so I don't know what the deal is with Black Claw in Portland and you've done a pretty good job of staying a step or two ahead of HW.'

This was a huge surprised to Nick. 'Have we?'

'They wouldn't be blackmailing Hank if they knew everything they needed to,' Josh pointed out. 'I don't think they know about Adalind,' he added. 'Maybe it is Black Claw sending wesen to attack you.' His words were starting to slur and his winces every time he moved more pronounced.

'I'll go get the nurse,' Adalind said softly, turning and leaving the room.

'You need to be careful, Nick,' Josh said quietly after Adalind had left. 'If HW finds out about her, if they find out you have hexenbiest for a girlfriend they'll try to use her. Black Claw will do the same, Trubel said she's really powerful.'

'If either of them lay a hand on her it'll be the last thing they do.'

'You can't kill them all,' Josh cautioned him.

'Who said anything about me?' Nick grinned darkly. 'Adalind can take care of herself.'

'Yes, Adalind can,' the hexenbiest herself agreed, returning to the room with a nurse who was holding a plastic cup filled with painkillers and another of water. 'Wu sent a couple of uniforms to keep an eye on Josh,' she told Nick. 'I figured you'd want to speak to them yourself before we go.'

Nick nodded, realising that he wanted to talk to them, not only to give them instructions on what to look for but also because he wanted to get a good look at them to make sure they weren't secretly wesen or working for HW or this Black Claw. Not that he had any idea how he was supposed to know either of those things just from a look but the action itself would make him feel better.

And it did make him feel better. He ducked out of the room to talk to them and saw that Wu had sent over two uniforms he actually knew. He wasn't going to say he trusted them but he had worked with them often enough that he wasn't worried about them being wesen who were likely to attack Josh while he was doped out on painkillers. He briefed them quickly, explaining that anyone who did come looking for Josh would likely be professional and know exactly what they were doing. He was grateful they didn't ask him too many questions and once he was satisfied they would be okay he went back inside to have a last quick word with Josh.

Josh was asleep though and Adalind was talking in an undertone to the nurse. She saw him come back in, thanked the nurse and joined him at the door. She waited until they were halfway down the corridor before she spoke.

'He's going to need surgery on his knee but they're not worried about the fractures or his ribs.'

'Surgery's going to take longer.'

Adalind nodded. 'He'll need to spend a few days here at least and then he'll need physical therapy for a little while.'

'Do you think because he's a Grimm now it'll heal better, faster?'

This time Adalind shrugged. 'I don't know, Grimms heal fast but most of them don't heal like you. With everything you've been through, your abilities are heightened, Josh might heal fast but I don't know how fast.'

It was better than nothing and at least something positive he could tell the others when they met up at the Shop again the next morning. He hadn't called Hank, wasn't sure if Wu had either but that was good, he needed a little extra time before he wanted to deal with that.

'I've never even heard of Black Claw,' Rosalee admitted. 'Josh says they're some kind of wesen rebels?'

'For lack of a better term, yeah,' Nick agreed. 'According to this HW, Black Claw wants wesen to come out into the open.'

'That's a terrible idea,' Monroe immediately countered.

'It's a horrible idea,' Adalind agreed.

'It's war,' Wu said.

They all turned to look at him, gathered around the table in the side room. 'What?' Nick questioned.

'War,' Wu repeated. 'This isn't going to be some easy revelation – trust me, I know – it'll start a war, wesen against human. War.'

'He's right,' Rosalee agreed. 'People will get scared and when they get scared they lash out. If this Black Claw succeeds in outing wesen, there'll be so much blood and violence.'

'So you think HW is a good thing?' Nick wondered. 'Because they're trying to stop this?'

'Hell no,' Rosalee was quick to say, 'They'll probably just make it worse.'

Nick couldn't disagree, he didn't know enough about HW and what he did know didn't sit well with him. They were the reason Josh had turned up in a stolen car broken and bleeding. They were the reason Hank's ex-father-in-law was dead (apparently) and the reason no one had heard from Trubel in a while. Nothing they'd done so far seemed like a good thing and Nick feared he had not one but two new enemies to contend with.

Because it wasn't as if he didn't have enough to deal with, what with the Royals already gunning for him and his cases at work piling up, not to mention his normal duties as a Grimm.

'There are too many things we don't know,' he realised. 'Josh can tell us more, when he's out of surgery but until then we need to focus on finding Trubel, on making sure Hank isn't about to get himself killed.'

'We need to find out who the people attacking us are,' Adalind added.

'And solve our hexenbiest murder,' Wu supplied unhelpfully.

Nick grimaced, too many things to do, so few hours in the day. He sighed. 'Okay, forget about Trubel for now, Josh doesn't seem to think she's in immediate danger and I'm sure he's got a way to get in contact with her. We need to find out if anyone here in Portland has heard of this Black Claw, if anyone knows about HW and if there is anyone who could identify our hexenbiest who seems to have been calling on Grimms.'

'Oh,' Adalind said quite suddenly. 'Black Claw!' she started rummaging through her handbag and pulled out her purse. Bewildered they all watched her until she'd dug a white business card out of her purse and held it up triumphantly. 'Black Claw.'

Bemused, Nick took the card from her and recognised it as the one they'd found on Fuentes when he'd attacked them. He frowned and considered asking Adalind why she had it and it wasn't stored in an evidence locker but then he thought better of it. If he didn't ask, he didn't have to know.

The card was small and white, perfectly ordinary card stock and on it were four diagonal marks in jagged black ink that he realised now were supposed to represent claw marks.

'You think Fuentes was Black Claw?' and then his instincts and brain made a leap he really didn't want them to. 'You think Fuentes faked those Grimm circles to cover up this murder.'

'Not necessarily,' Adalind replied. 'But they're connected they have to be.'

'They are,' Rosalee said, she took the card from Nick and then went on her own quick search through a pile of papers on the end of the table. She withdrew a calling card like the one Adalind had shown her, though this one wasn't a professionally made business card, it was a torn piece of notebook paper. 'I found this in one of the dead hexenbiest's books.'

Wu took the paper from her and frowned down at it. 'Do you think our victim was Black Claw?'

'I don't know what to think,' Nick answered him. 'I don't think we know enough about this. We need to talk to Hank, we need to talk to my mother and we need to find Trubel.'

'We need to do a lot of things,' Adalind murmured. 'Wu can call Hank, he needs to be here for this. Monroe, Rosalee and I will make some calls see if anyone knows anything about the dead hexenbiest or anything about Black Claw or HW, yes,' she added with a roll of her eyes when Nick went to interrupt, 'we'll do it without mentioning them. You can try and find a way to get in contact with your mother that doesn't take three weeks to get a response.'

They all nodded, it seemed like as good a plan as any. 'I'll have Bud go around and talk to Josh,' Nick decided. 'He's not much help in a fight but he hears things and he might get something out of Josh that we don't see. Plus, he hasn't been able to get hold of Trubel either – I checked.'

Unfortunately, as good a plan as it seemed, Nick didn't know how he was supposed to get hold of his mother any easier. The best he could do was send her an email requesting she call as soon as she could because things were heating up in Portland. He called Bud next and asked the man to stop by the hospital to check on Josh and asked the eisbiber to get what he could from the new Grimm about HW and Black Claw, which involved explaining what they knew about both groups (which wasn't much) and listening to Bud fret over what that would mean for their families.

Nick didn't like the thought of his family being put in danger any more than Bud did and it was proving to be just as motivating to Bud as it was for Nick. Nick had no doubt that Bud would have something more for them by the end of the weekend, his eisbiber friend heard all the wesen gossip and spread quite a bit of it on his own.

'I called Hank,' Wu told him, crossing back across the room to Nick as they'd all spread out to avoid talking over the top of one another making their dozens of different phone calls. 'He's on his way with the fancy new burner HW left at his house last night.'

'Great,' Nick grimaced.

'I also spoke to the lab and they couldn't give me anything off the ones Josh had with him. Most of them haven't been used and the one that had only made a single call – which was to a payphone in New Jersey.'

'A pay phone?' Nick repeated. 'In New Jersey?'

'Yep,' Wu said. 'I'm trying to pull surveillance from the area at the time of the call but it's going to take time.'

'You think it was Trubel?'

Wu shrugged. 'Who else would it be?'

Nick couldn't argue, Josh didn't have any family left and he'd shown more than once that when he was in trouble it was to Portland and the friends he'd made there that he ran. Which made sense to Nick, going to another Grimm for safety was a lot smarter than struggling like Trubel had done on her own for all those years. It was just another reason he didn't like the idea of her alone out there now. He knew she could handle herself but he hoped that she knew by now she wasn't alone, that she didn't have to handle things by herself anymore.

Nick hoped the fact that Trubel hadn't shown up yet was a sign that she'd fallen back on old habits of running and hiding instead of seeking out help. He preferred to think of it that way than to consider that unlike Hank and Josh, Trubel didn't see HW as a bad thing.

He shook away the thought. Trubel liked it in Portland, she'd come to trust Nick and his friends, she even liked Adalind, if she was in trouble she'd come back to Portland like Josh had. The fact that she wasn't here yet meant that she was being prevented from slipping away or she was on her way. Trubel would never have stood by and let Josh get hurt, that suggested to Nick she hadn't known how bad it was or hadn't known at all that it had happened.

His money was on the latter. 'How long ago was that call to New Jersey?'

'Four days,' Wu told him. 'It only lasted twelve seconds.'

Twelve seconds didn't sound like a long phone call but it was long enough to convey a quick message. Nick had managed to convey things to Adalind in far less time, they knew each other so well, and he imagined Monroe and Rosalee were the same. He wasn't speculating on the nature of Josh and Trubel's relationship exactly, but they'd spent a lot of time together just the two of them and they were good friends. He felt it was safe to assume they could convey a fair bit of important information in a twelve second phone call.

Either they'd come through in New Jersey and Wu would have some useful surveillance or Josh would be able to explain the phone call, either way, they were one step closer to finding Trubel.

Monroe was the last to finish up his phone calls but he at least had some useful news. 'Adalind was right about those books,' he shared. 'Some of them are really rare and have been missing for a long time. Uncle Felix gave me the names of the people last known to have them and he said he'd look into them for me.'

'Well,' Nick said, 'it's more than we had before.'

'None of my contacts have heard anything,' Rosalee reported. 'I'm still waiting for a call back from the Council.'

'Most of mine won't even take my call,' Adalind admitted with a great deal of annoyance. 'I'm contemplating cursing them all as a reminder of who I am.'

Nick should probably have been worried that the idea of his girlfriend cursing a bunch of random wesen didn't bother him. He assumed it was because the sort of people she was talking about probably deserved a good cursing and not that he was happy to overlook anything Adalind did because he was stupidly in love with her.

He compromised with himself, admitting that it was probably a bit of both.

'Should we get food?' Rosalee asked suddenly, breaking Nick from his thoughts.

'What?' he asked at the same time Adalind said, 'Yes,' in a tone that suggested this was the best suggestion she'd heard all morning. She's only eaten breakfast an hour before, though it hadn't been particularly substantial, just a piece of toast.

'Let's do brunch,' Rosalee suggested.

'Brunch?' Nick repeated sceptically. 'Since when do we brunch?'

'Since I'm hungry and want food,' Adalind offered.

'Brunch, it is,' he agreed. 'Wu can call Hank, have him meet us there.'

Wu nodded. 'Somewhere public where he can't try to kill your girlfriend?'

Adalind snorted. 'Like he could.'

'Yes,' Nick agreed. 'But then I'd be trying to explain how my tiny pregnant girlfriend killed a cop – my partner – over brunch. And I'm just not sure "he took the last bread roll" is a reasonable excuse.'

This got a laugh out of all of them. 'Just so long as you know I could still take him.'

'Adalind,' Nick said with great fondness, 'Last week I watched you kill a klaustreich with a teaspoon, I'm not doubting you.'

Adalind grinned. 'He had it coming.'

'Yes, he did,' Nick agreed, wrapping her scarf around her and used it to tug her closer as they got ready to leave so he could steal a quick kiss.

'Are they always this adorable?' Wu asked Monroe and Rosalee in an intentionally loud whisper. The way he said adorable sounded like he meant sickening and Nick shot him a glare over Adalind's shoulder.

'Yes,' Monroe and Rosalee answered without missing a beat but they were both smiling with amusement so he let it go.

They didn't end up going very far, just down the street, and got a table toward the back where Nick had a nice view of both entrances, the brightly lit hallway that led to the bathrooms and the kitchen as well. They left a space beside Wu (who was next to Monroe) free for Hank which put him opposite Nick with a nice unobstructed view of Adalind who was sitting between him and Rosalee. There was a good chance things would get heated seconds after Hank noticed who was sitting at the table but Nick really did hope the public setting would deter Hank from making a scene.

It had certainly stopped him; he'd had to hunt Adalind down outside the bathroom last time they'd been at a meal with Hank. It was funny how, looking back on that moment, he was seeing things differently. He wondered what would have happened if he'd kissed her, if he'd taken all those stupid flirty comments and done something about them.

They'd probably have ended up fucking in one of the stalls. He snorted.

'What?' Adalind asked.

He shook his head, murmuring, 'I'll tell you later.'

Hank came in then, he stopped by the hostess but spotted them and continued walking. Nick could see the exact moment he took in exactly who was sitting beside him because he froze and it wasn't anything subtle like Adalind's wince from the day before. This was feet grinding to a halt, mouth dropping open and then snapping shut with an audible sound kind of reaction. Nick made no effort to remove the arm he had draped along the back of Adalind's chair. He locked eyes with his partner and just waited.

He was giving Hank the choice. He could make a scene, he could walk out, or he could take a seat. Each choice would have a different result. If he made a scene, there was every chance Adalind would end up killing him or Nick himself would end up punching Hank. If he walked out, it would be a sign that Hank wasn't willing to deal with this but it would also say that he couldn't overlook it to deal with the bigger threat of HW.

Really, Hank's only option was to take a seat and Nick was content to sit there and stare at him until he saw that Hank had realised it too. With sharp jerky movements, Hank moved forward to take the empty seat between Wu and Monroe. He didn't look at Adalind, his gaze directed solely at Nick. Out of the corner of his eye, Nick saw Rosalee squeeze Adalind's hand under the table and knowing those two, it was less about comfort and more about stopping Adalind from launching the first attack.

'Are you fucking kidding me?' Hank hissed. 'Her? Really? Man, you've lost your damn mind!'

Hank was angry, surprised – definitely surprised – but he stayed in his seat, leaning forward so he could hiss his words at Nick in an attempt to keep them for the table only and not the whole café.

'Are you seriously telling me I've been protecting her from HW and all their shit?'

Nick's expression turned cold in an instant. He withdrew his hand from Adalind's chair and leant forward to meet Hank's incredulous glare with a cold hard look of his own. Before he could say anything, though, Hank spoke again.

'What the hell did she do to you, this time?' Again, it was entirely the wrong thing for Hank to say.

Nick's response, though, wasn't at all what Hank was expecting. 'She trusted me,' he said simply. 'Which is more than I can say for you.'

Hank snorted. 'She trusted you? Come on, are you serious? After everything she's done?'

'You mean after everything I've done?' Nick countered.

'That's not the same,' Hank said.

'I think it is,' Nick informed him.

'Bullshit,' Hank snapped. 'She's done something, another love spell like those cookies.'

'Love cookies,' Monroe whispered in an undertone to Wu, 'we'll explain later.'

Nick shook his head. 'We're not here to talking about who I date,' Nick snapped.

To which Hank could only snort, 'Date?'

'This is your last – you only – chance to tell us everything you know about Hadrian's Wall.'

'Nick,' there was more than anger in Hank's voice now but Nick wasn't willing to hear it.

'Your choice Hank,' he said. 'You sit here and tell us what you know or you walk away right now and we're done.'

'What? Come on, man.'

'You're choice, Hank. Stay or go?'