AN: Sorry this took so long. I don't really have an excuse for it, but I hope you guys like the new chapter. Let me know what you think and enjoy!
Chapter 29
Season 4, Episode 20
Lily was in the middle of going through some files on her computer when her phone rang. She was a bit surprised to hear from Nick, but less so when he said he was in trouble and he needed to come see her. She agreed –more than willing to help- and told him to stop by despite the late hour. What she hadn't expected, was Adalind.
When she opened the door, Lily had every intention of telling them to leave, but the desperation on Nick's face made her second-guess. Against her better judgment, she let him in alongside the blonde and Hank.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" she asked without enthusiasm.
"We need to hide Adalind." Nick told her as he ushered the witch into the living room.
"Should I ask why you're bothering given the last time I saw her things were more than a little contentious?" Lily sighed, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at the trio.
"It's a long story." Nick sounded exhausted. "The gist is we need to keep her safe from Juliette and this was the only place we could think of. You have a doorman, locks, and Juliette's never been here."
Lily narrowed her eyes as she stared at the Grimm. There were clearly levels of explaining that needed to be done, but she wasn't entirely certain he was able at the moment. In fact, he still looked like he had more to do, and this was simply a stop off.
"All right," Lily finally replied in a soft, lackluster way.
"Really?" Adalind couldn't hide her surprise.
"Well it isn't as though I can do much at the moment, is it?" she didn't bother hiding her irritation. "No one's been silent on their hatred of you and if two of those individuals are bringing you here to hide you, clearly something's wrong."
Adalin glowered lightly, but she didn't say anything. It didn't look like she had anything to say. Lily turned her attention back to Nick.
"For how long?" she asked the cop.
"I don't know." He admitted. "Until we get everything taken care of, I guess."
She nodded whether she wanted to or not and a moment later, he left. Lily locked her front door behind the pair and returned to her living room, eying Adalind sternly again. The blond shifted awkwardly in her spot and wouldn't meet the young woman's stare for longer than a moment or two. Eventually, Lily sighed again.
"Sit," she motioned to the couch. "Please. I'll make some tea."
"Thanks," Adalind mumbled under her breath.
Lily nodded and headed to the kitchen while Adalind took a seat on the couch. She couldn't get completely comfortable, but Lily assumed that would be true of anywhere Nick took the blonde to hide. From what Lily knew, Adalind had burned her fair share of bridges.
While Adalind did her best to get as comfortable as possible in the stranger's house, Lily scuttled around the kitchen. The blonde barely paid any attention until a few moments later when the tea pot screamed. The sharp sound died an instant later when Lily turned off the burner. With her heart still racing, Adalind waited as patiently as possible until Lily joined her in the living room.
Lily didn't have anything for guests because she never had a need, but she still had a proper tea set and tray. She didn't know if it was because she liked the ceremony of it, the presentation, or because she was English. Truth be told, it might have been all three reasons. Regardless, she emerged in the living room with a steaming teapot, two teacups with saucers, a small bowl of sugar, a tiny pitcher for milk, spoons and a bowl of green grapes.
"You'll have to forgive me," Lily said when she set the tray down on the coffee table. She set the bowl of grapes aside, but closer to Adalind than herself and began to pour the tea, "I'm not one for company, and I don't have much in the ways of food, at least none that can be prepared quickly. My appetites have changed as of late."
"No," Adalind said quickly, "No, this is fine. Thank you."
Lily nodded and offered the blond her drink before pouring herself some tea as well. She added a bit of sugar to her brew, milk too, then took a seat across from the Hexenbiest. Adalind did her best to ignore the fact that Lily was staring at her, but she expected as much and did her best to act more comfortable than she felt as she prepared her drink.
"So," Lily eventually chimed, "Are you going to tell me what's happening?"
Adalind took a small sip of her steaming tea and hesitated. She didn't really want to rehash everything that's happened, but at the same time, it didn't seem as though she could stop it. Before she knew it was happening, Adalind let out a volley of information, telling Lily –a stranger to her- everything that had happened in the last few hours and what led up to it. She told Lily about the spell, about Juliette, and her love-child with Nick. She told Lily about Juliette's vengeance and why Nick was trying to hide her anywhere Juliette wouldn't think to look.
When she was done, she finally looked up at Lily. The dark-haired woman with the two-toned eyes stared at her blankly. Truthfully, it took Lily's brain a moment or two to simply absorb everything. Sorting it out might happen later, but absorbing it was her main concern.
So much had happened in her absence. It wasn't that she was foolish enough to think she was deep within the circle of Nick's friends, but good Lord... There was hectic and then there was the mess that had been brought to her door.
"And now, I have this Grimm… Hexen… Hexen-Grimm baby growing inside me and god only knows what it'll be when it's born. Nick hates me, everyone hates me and I don't know what I'm going to do."
Lily blinked. There was little to nothing she could do to offer in the ways of a solution, so she remained silent while Adalind vented. One thing, however, struck her sharply.
"Who knows that the father of your child is a Grimm?" she finally asked when Adalind let herself breathe.
"Uh," Adalind thought, "Nick's friends, you, and-" the color fled her features. "Oh god," she looked terrified. "Oh god, Kenneth knows."
"Who's Kenneth?"
"Another royal," she said. Lily instinctively flinched. "He's here to replace Victor, but he knows. He knew, already, I didn't even have to tell him, he just knew and I don't know who he told. Oh my god," she was rambling now. "He probably told the king. If the royal family knows, then it's only a matter of time before someone tells the Council, too. Oh… oh god."
Lily said nothing. She simply watched as Adalind began to realize that her unborn child's parentage was now an issue.
"I doubt anyone will come after you." Lily finally said. "The royals have no need of you now, and it's unlikely they'll tell the council."
"No, you don't understand." Adalind was almost frantic now. "This happened before, years ago, and they killed everyone. This is so far beyond forbidden. Wesen aren't even supposed to associate with Grimms and I'm…" her blue eyes began to tint pink and glass over. "Oh my god," she buried her face in her hands.
Lily knew Adalind was explaining everything because she thought the dark-haired woman wouldn't know. And in normal circumstance, she'd have been right. A normal Grimm wouldn't have any idea of what happened so long ago, but Lily wasn't a normal Grimm.
"You'll be fine." Lily felt compelled to say even though her voice held little to no warmth. Adalind looked up, but the tears were already there. "The Wesen betrayed one of the families, and the Grimm helped her. And from what I understand, Sean's family is only concerned with the daughter you two had, not the child that's growing in you now."
"You don't know what they're capable of." She sounded so frightened, Lily almost pitied her.
"I know more than you think." Lily told her simply. "We weren't properly introduced before. My name is Lillian Lavasseur-Quinn." Adalind's face dropped which was the expression Lily expected. "Pleased to meet you."
Adalind looked over her more than once, taking in everything she could. She stared at Lily like she was a figment, a ghost that shouldn't be there.
"You?" she pointed at Lily. "But… the whole family was wiped out."
"Not entirely." Lily replied. "Though it wasn't for lack of trying."
"Oh my god," she mumbled. Lily was growing tired of that particular phrase given how often Adalind had spoken it in such a short time, but she said nothing about it. Instead, the Hexenbiest continued to look at her before eventually meeting her gaze. "What are you?" Lily arched a single brow. "I mean… oh, right. You're a Grimm."
Adalind remembered meeting her at Sean's house months prior and woging in front of her. She remembered the fathomless black, but something different about her eyes.
"That's why your eyes are off."
"Not entirely," Lily said cryptically before woging. Despite Sean's warnings that Adalind was a greedy opportunist, she did it anyway. Perhaps it was simply because of the fear in Adalind's behavior, or the fact that things had changed so drastically from the last time she spoke to Renard. Either way, Lily wasn't concerned with the witch knowing the truth.
Adalind was shocked to see it, but given everything else she was going through, it barely seemed to make her react. Honestly, she was just too tired to be too surprised.
"You're… both?"
Lily nodded as the feline exterior faded.
"So," Adalind touched her stomach. "That means… he might be both, too…"
"Perhaps." Lily replied. "I became a Grimm after my parents died. The wesen half didn't manifest until a few months ago. There's a chance your child could be one, both, or neither."
"Huh," she mumbled, nodding briefly to herself.
Silence filled the room long enough for Lily to finish her drink. She stood.
"I'll make up the bed for you."
"Oh," Adalind chimed quickly causing Lily to pause. "That's okay… I can take the couch."
"You're pregnant." She said as though it was obvious. "You can take the bed. I'll take the couch."
There was such finality in the way Lily spoke, Adalind could do little more than nod. She was a little intimidated by the dark-haired young woman, especially now knowing the truth.
Roughly ten minutes later, Lily returned to the living room and ushered Adalind into the bedroom. She'd changed the sheets for the blonde and laid out something for her to wear. She wasn't entirely certain anything she had would fit over the growing pregnancy belly, but Lily did have one or two oversized shirts, and one of them seemed large enough.
Adalind was apprehensive about falling asleep, but she was tired. After saying good night, Lily took the sheets she'd removed from her bed and threw them over the couch for her to sleep. She didn't know how she was pulled into this situation, or even what the situation was exactly, but the half hour or so she spent hearing about it left her drained.
The next couple of days were going to be interesting to say the least.
That was a lie.
Interesting was the understatement of the century. After digging up Adalind's mother, slicing bits and pieces off of her, brewing that into a potion and watching the spirit of a Hexenbiest purge itself from Adalind's body, interesting wasn't a big enough word. Hell, Lily wasn't certain there was a word for it.
Powerless, Lily took Adalind back to her place, forced the young woman to eat something and then sent her to bed. She wasn't entirely certain when she became the witch's mother, but there wasn't any other way to describe it. Still, if what she was hearing about Juliette was even remotely true, someone protecting her was exactly what Adalind needed.
With her heightened senses and sleeping on the couch, Lily was easily awoken when there was a knock at her door. She slid easily to her feet and stalked towards the wooden slab as silently as she could. When she reached it, she glanced through the peephole and only calmed when she saw Nick and Hank. With a sigh, she unlocked her door.
"Gentlemen," she motioned for them to enter and they did without a word. "Hm, judging by your stance, something didn't go according to plan."
"You could say that." Hank replied heavily.
"Where's Adalind?" Nick asked.
"My room," Lily pointed to the only closed door and he didn't hesitate to enter leaving the two alone.
Lily turned to Hank, "What's happened?"
"Juliette's lost it." He said. "She destroyed the potion, torched the trailer and forced Nick to shoot Monroe."
"Oh my god, is he-"
"He's fine." He said quickly. "I had to tackle him out of the way, but if I hadn't, he would've died." Sadness took Hank's features. "She's gone. I don't know who she is now, but she's not Juliette."
"I'm sorry," Lily said. And she meant it.
"Did he die?" Adalind's voice brought Lily into the moment and forced her to excuse herself from Hank. She stepped to the doorway and spied openly. "When he was in the hospital, did Sean die?"
"I don't know." Nick replied.
"Yes," Lily answered. Nick looked surprised, but Adalind didn't even seem phased.
"What there anyone there with him?" she asked Lily.
"Elizabeth," Lily nodded. "His mother." She corrected, unsure of whether or not Adalind knew the other witch.
Her expression told Lily that she did. "Then she brought him back." She sighed. "That must be what opened the portal."
"Portal?"
Adalind continued to fill Nick in one what was happening to Renard, all the while Lily spied and listened. As she did, she couldn't help but feel afraid and angry. She was frightened about him being in trouble, about something obviously attacking him, and angry he hadn't said anything. That ass should have come to her.
The realization that she felt at all betrayed by Renard's lack of confidence wasn't lost on her and before she could feel anything else for the man, she removed herself and returned to the living room. She wasn't supposed to be worried about him. She wasn't supposed to care…
