The next morning, Marcie could be found in her office, waiting for the grimm to arrive. She had heard his hesitation last night when she had called and it had made her wonder what had been going on in the man's life that he didn't even trust his doctor not to ambush him. Being a grimm had its dangers, she knew, but she also knew that grimms could handle themselves and that very few whom posed a danger would go after one; at least not in a doctor's office. So who had now decided that they could take one on and live? It was surely none of her business but since Nick was not only her patient but one of the few grimms who listened first and killed as a last resort, Marcie felt inclined to help him if she could.
Her focus shifted from the door, which she expected her patient to open at any moment, to the papers on her desk. To the layman the print on them was nothing but a bit of gibberish. To a person who was trained to read it, however, it was something else entirely.
The average person has about twenty-three molecules which forms part of their genetic makeup. However, Nick had more; not many more but enough to where it was abnormal and fascinating. It was also more-than-likely what made him a creature unto itself, meaning, not a human and not a wesen, but a grimm. If Marcie could trust that the scientific-wesen community wouldn't use it to their advantage - and against her patient - she would be very disposed to publish an article on her findings. But alas, many wesen still had the same old-world view of grimms which was bad for Nick whom was most definitely not an old-school grimm.
The sensor which crossed the threshold to the office entry sounded, alerting Marcie that Nick had entered. She patiently waited for the grimm to get to her door where he quietly, almost hesitantly, knocked and waited for permission to enter. Marcie got up and went to let him in. For some reason she hated saying "come in" as it felt so pompous to her. His face showed surprise, probably at the fact that she'd opened the door rather than telling him to enter, but he didn't let it stay there for long. Almost as soon as she'd seen it, he wiped it off and schooled his features into something more neutral, if not a bit menacing. From behind his back, Marcie rolled her brown eyes. If he thought that was going to intimidate her, he didn't know anything about her kind at all.
"So, what did you need to see me for?" he asked, evidently choosing to be blunt rather than attempt any small-talk.
He moved with the grace of a predator to sit in the chair across from her desk. No signs of injury or pain were present, unlike when she had last seen him, and for that she was tempted to conduct another examination so that she could get to know what his body was like when it was healthy. His surety in his ability to handle whatever comes vibrated out of him in waves and she swore she could actually feel them as they broke against her skin. It made a very small part of her shrink back a little and a larger, more prevalent, part want to answer the silent (and most likely unconscious) challenge which he emitted.
Swallowing to choke down in her instincts, Marcie closed the door behind him and went to sit at her desk. She tried to smile at him but it was brittle and it withered in the face of his grim (no pun intended) expression.
"Thank you for coming," she said, wondering if she should get him to try and confide a little bit in her or if she should simply get to the point and then send him on his way. A balance between the two would be a good place to start but she wasn't sure if she was up to the task. "I have found some things within your genes which, I believe, may help explain why you healed so quickly, Bud's super-goo notwithstanding."
Marcie looked up, wanting to know if he would show any sort of emotion to hearing that, but when she was met with the stone façade, she looked back down at the papers on her desk and stared. She wasn't sure where to start, to tell the truth. Should she be clinical or should she speak as though she were talking to an idiot? Again, she went with the middle ground.
"While testing your blood, I found a lot of the same genetic markers which are present in all beings." He nodded his head slowly to show he understood but said nothing and so she continued, "But there are also more markers than are present in either a human or a wesen."
"And that means what?" he said, talking slowly as though he were trying to understand what it was she was or was not saying. The iciness he had been showing since he'd walked in melted a little as his brows furrowed into a small line of confusion.
"It means that, from what I can understand, you are a hybrid of sorts." She paused to let him attempt to take that in and then she hurriedly continued, "As I was testing, I also ran a test of a regular human's blood and then the blood of several different wesen, mine included, and what I found was that you share markers with both species. You have all the standard human markers that a person would expect to find in a thirty-something year old male, but then you also share some of the markers in several wesen. It's almost like, over time, the grimms have evolved from a form of cross-breeding, keeping hold of the traits which help you and letting go of the ones that don't." Upon seeing that his confusion hadn't abated, she added, "It's a little hard to explain, honestly, but one thing is for sure. The main marker which wesen scientists have found to activate the woge is the only constant marker which is not present in your blood."
"So," Nick said, again talking slowly as his brain tried to catch up, "does this mean that I will develop other..abilities?"
"It's possible," she granted, "but I honestly couldn't say for sure. This is a new area for me."
"Genetics?" he quipped, using humor to hide his confusion.
"Studying a grimm," she said, somewhat more seriously than she had meant. His focused singled onto her and she felt a bit uncomfortable with the renewed attention. It wasn't just because he was staring at her; he'd been doing that ever since she'd started talking. No, it was the expression that was in his eyes, a mixture of shock and anger, which shone back at her. She sighed. "As you know, grimms and wesen haven't always gotten along. Mostly whenever a wesen comes up against a grimm, one of them always ends up dead. Unless the wesen is a scientist, no wesen is thinking of capturing a grimm to study it-him/her, I mean." She winced at her slip, "Sorry." He waved a hand to let her know that he hadn't taken offense and gave a half-smile which didn't reach his eyes. "Anyways, no one has ever really been able to build enough of a rapport with a grimm to have them actually allow the wesen to take some blood and examine both the grimm and the blood."
"So this is basically a find for you," he said, sounding only mildly sarcastic, "you should publish in the wesen journal of medicine."
Oh how she wished she could. Still, she knew an insincere suggestion when she heard it and she smiled at him. "No doubt, that wouldn't work out so well for you," she said a bit wryly.
"Not a lot has of late, so why worry about that now?" he quipped bitterly.
"Anything you care to talk about?" she asked with her eyes on the papers, though not focusing on them, to give him the sense that she wasn't as interested as she truly felt.
"I honestly wouldn't know where to start," he answered somewhat dejectedly.
"Does this have anything to do with those grisly murders that have been happening?" she asked, doing her best not to allude directly to the woman that had recently been killed. The gossip mill within the wesen community was about three-times stronger than the one in Hollywood and she'd heard that the woman, a Juliette Silverton, had been her patient's girlfriend at some point in the past. She couldn't imagine how that death had affected him, how it must still be gnawing at him.
He gave a sardonic smile filled with enough self loathing to be palpable. "You could say that."
So that was a 'yes'. Not wanting to push, Marcie remained quiet, though her brain kept pumping out questions which she knew he wouldn't answer. Unable to decide what would be best to say next, she chose to say nothing for a time. After that had passed, she found that she couldn't stand it and so she asked something which she had been thinking about recently. "Are any of my patients in the immediate crosshairs?"
Again he smirked, his head moving mildly in a nod. "Monroe."
Trying to digest that, Marcie gave a small nod herself. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Not unless you want to help me hunt down and kill another grimm," he answered, his tone making it obvious that he didn't believe she'd say yes.
"Another grimm," she said, doing her best to sound curious and not panicked. "Anyone I know?"
"His name's Sergio, though whether or not you know him would only be known to you."
Marcie felt her heart stop as her mind screamed, "NO!"
Yes, she knew him. He was the grimm who was responsible for over half her kind being eradicated, including her mate and her two children. Anger, fury, and fear stirred in her breast and Marcie began to breathe faster as her heart rate increased.
"So you do know him," her patient said. The calmness and resignation within his voice helped to ease a bit of her intense emotions, but only slightly.
"What makes you say that?" she asked, trying to play her tone off lightly.
"Your eyes glowed yellow," he said mildly, evidently used to that happening to him. "What did he do?"
"He killed a lot of people," she said, trying to remain vague in an attempt to distance herself from her grief. When she focused back onto the grimm in front of her, she saw that he had understood far more of the subtext than she had wanted and he looked like he was getting tired of hearing about all the innocent people that Sergio had killed. Her blood began to heat again and this time she was aware of the change in her vision as her eyes changed to the panther's. "I will help you," she said, her voice coming out as little more than a growl. She didn't add that she wanted to be the one to kill the maniacal grimm because no matter how much she desired the man's death, Marcie knew that she wouldn't be able to be the one to take his life. Her job was to save lives, not take them. But that didn't mean that she couldn't help orchestrate it so that he ended up dead, nonetheless.
"What are your plans for the day?" he asked, taking her acceptance at face value and not even bothering to put any form of restrictions on the limits of her help.
She smiled, her white teeth peering out of a feral grin. "I'm free all day."
oOo
Hank Griffin sat in the unfamiliar vehicle, feeling somewhat cramped inside the little Honda. He had strongly argued for something with some space, but the Captain had felt that it would be too obvious and had chosen a broke-down POS instead. It smelled like corn chips and feet in the car which left Hank with cuddling closely into his coat so that he could crack a window or two to get some fresh air. The things he did for family, right? Hopefully this guy wouldn't take too long in coming cause Hank really didn't want to be in the car much longer.
A rustling of leaves from the forest to Hank's left caught his attention and as quickly as he could be without seeming to notice, he was alert. Although he didn't expect Sergio to make such an obvious sound, Hank watched out of the corner of his eye for movement just in case. When a woman, a pretty one at that, came out instead of a man, Hank relaxed and went back to watching Monroe's house. However, when said woman walked around his car, opened the passenger door and got in, Hank sat more erectly, hand near his gun in case it was needed.
The first thing he noticed were her eyes. They were almost exotic, though their color was a standard color of honey brown. Her skin, barely visible underneath her many layers of warm clothing, was a beautiful cappuccino color and damn-near flawless from what he could see. Her dark hair was pulled back into a neat and business-like bun, leaving her face exposed to scrutiny as well as the elements of the weather.
In spite of how pleasing he found her to look at, however, there was nothing nice in the look she gave him. It was a challenging sort of expression, one that dared him to try and kick her out of the car. While he had been tempted at first to do it, he no longer held any such feelings for the simple reason that he was sure one of them would end up hurt if he did, and it wouldn't be her.
"I'm Marcie," she said, her voice an alto and so formal he almost wondered if she was a Fed. "Nick said that I could help you keep a lookout for Sergio."
Nick sent her? A heads-up would have been nice!
"And why did he think that?" Hank cautiously challenged while doing his best to reserve any judgment until he knew the full story. One thing he had learned from being a cop was that it was best not to act on any first impressions unless you had hard proof. While you could have your own instincts, tuitions, or ideas and what you think is the whole story, rare was the time when they turned out to be the entire truth. Sometimes you got to find out all of it, sometimes you didn't. But there was never a time when you knew it all right off the bat.
Her smile was almost feral and it had Hank wondering if she was a wesen or simply crazy. Could be both for all he knew. "Because, unlike you, I know what he looks like."
Hank recognized that the words were meant to sound smug but her voice was cold and Hank could almost feel the hate that roiled off the woman. He watched her, waiting to see if she would say more but she seemed to think that all she had said was sufficient and so she remained quiet. As soon as she had finished talking to him, she turned her head to focus on the surroundings rather than Monroe's house. Since she no longer seemed interested in him, Hank did the same, refusing to push this woman until he knew more about her and, possibly, until he got to know her better.
When Hank's phone rang, they both jumped as neither of them had been expecting something quite so loud to shatter the intense silence that had filled the Honda. Hank checked to see who it was before he slid the green bar on his iPhone to answer it.
"Nick, what's up?" He was proud that he managed to sound casual when all he truly wanted to do was demand answers. His eyes still scanned the outside but his attention was no longer on guard duty. That he left to Marcie.
"Hey, I'm sending someone to help you," Nick said, sounding a bit out of breath. "Her name is Marcie and she can help identify Sergio in case he shows up."
Oh sure, now Nick calls to warn him! Hank rolled his eyes. "I know," he said, making sure to keep his derisiveness in his tone. "She's been here for about fifteen minutes."
"Yeah, sorry," Nick said after a pause. "I didn't think she'd get there that fast. She must have woged."
So she was a wesen. That was good to know. Hank longed to ask his partner what type of wesen the woman next to him was but he figured that would be too rude. After all, she was right there; he could always ask her. Not that he expected her to answer, but he could ask.
"What makes you think Sergio's even gonna show?" he asked as his impatience to escape from the poor excuse for a car got the better of him. "I've been here all morning and nothing."
Nick let out a sight that Hank had come to recognize as frustration. "I don't, but I'd rather have you guys there in the off chance that he does rather than find out later that he'd been there all along."
"Yeah, I get it," Hank said, truly understanding. The phrase 'better safe than sorry' had never been truer, he supposed, though he wished that someone else could be on guard duty.
There was a moment of silence where neither man spoke and Hank felt his interest rise when Nick's voice did return but it was hushed, like he was whispering. "Hank, I gotta go."
Nick didn't even give Hank the time to ask if everything was alright. He hung up as soon as those words were spoken and it took Hank a second for his brain to catch up with what had just happened. When it had, the detective found himself almost concerned for his partner. Something clearly hadn't been right but as long as he was stuck here babysitting Monroe, he couldn't do a damn thing about whatever it was that had Nick spooked.
Luckily, he knew someone that could. Hank immediately dialed the Captain's number, waiting for the crisp, "Yeah", before he said, "I think Nick might be in trouble."
There was a pause where the Captain hesitated, or perhaps he was simply making sure that no one else caught on to what was being said, and then he said, "What makes you think that?" His tone was carefully neutral but Hank could still tell that there was an undercurrent of worry in it. He tried not to smile. It was cute, the way the Captain cared about Nick, and Nick for the Captain, though the stubborn idiot wouldn't outwardly admit that yet.
"He and I were on the phone," Hank said and he almost hated how much of a mother-hen he sounded as he spoke. But Nick was his partner, man, and you looked out for one another. "He didn't say much, but when he last spoke, he was whispering, like he was tryin' to sneak up on someone or somethin'."
"Nick's a big boy, he can take care of himself," was the swift reply and casual dismissal.
"Yeah, and what if he can't?" Hank returned. When there was no reply, he sighed. "I'm not sayin' you have to being a knight-in-shining-armor but it couldn't hurt to check on him, you know?"
He heard his boss chuckle a little, no doubt to Hank's reference of a savior, but he still didn't answer. Figuring that was the best he was going to get, Hank prepared to hang up when the Captain's voice stopped him. "I'll swing by and make sure everything is alright," he promised, immediately relieving the stone of anxiety that had begun to form in Hank's chest.
Neither man broke off with words of goodbye. With the understanding that, one way or another, Nick would be fine, they hung up. Hank tucked his phone into his coat pocket and then started when he saw Marcie looking at him. "Something wrong?" she asked with only a hint of concern in her voice.
"No," Hank dismissed, not wanting to get into partner dynamics with the very headstrong and complete stranger next to him. He smiled, hoping that it would make the comment go further and then looked back out the window. As Monroe poked his head out the door to look around before grabbing the paper which had sat there all morning, Hank sighed and added, "Just another day with a grimm as your friend."
oOo
Sergio watched the small group outside, and within, the blutbad's house. He found it comical that they believed they were enough to stop him from getting to his prey. It would be very easy to shoot each and every one of them and no one would be the wiser as to who did it or where the shots had come from. But then that puta, Marcie, had shown up and he had reluctantly backed off, immediately heading for his car. He was not afraid of the wesen but he knew enough of their kind to know that she would be able to smell him a mile away and that this particular haji would not hesitate in hunting him down the second she sensed him.
In silence, his car started, purring to life in the way that electric cars tended to do. He waited a moment, checking his blind spots and deciding what to do with his day, before he pulled out onto the street, leaving the blutbad's house behind. The streets of Portland held no sway for him. Sergio had been to much prettier places than this and therefore had no need to stare at the city and marvel over it. So, his mind went inward, still trying to think of where to take him as it led him down one street or another. The blutbad was off limits for the day and he knew that he would need more time to find the other, younger, blutbad and her reinigen, so that left him with few options.
A smile of pure glee spread onto his face as his brain finally brought all the pieces together and fit them into the puzzle. With all of his friends either in hiding or guarding the older blutbad, the grimm was now open to attack. Sergio would never say that the man was defenseless, after all, he was a grimm, if a bit young and untrained, and he had a sumnjiv living with him, but Sergio liked his chances. So, turning at the next available place, he turned around and headed in the direction of the grimm's house.
He parked far enough away that the grimm wouldn't notice the unfamiliar car and strolled along the sidewalk. He took care to nod at neighbors and appear friendly enough as he casually slipped around the back of the house and let himself in illegally. No sound echoed through the cold-feeling home as he closed the door. Not even the sumnjiv could be heard moving around. Of course, he hadn't heard the bitch the last time either and had had quite the chunk taken out of his leg. That had, unfortunately, set his plans back a bit but he no longer paid the wound any attention. It was little more than a twinge and a scratch now and those he could ignore, especially if it meant bringing the game to a head earlier rather than later.
Sergio moved on silent feet as he went from the kitchen to the dining room to the living room, trying to decide where he would or could hide to wait for his opponent. He finally settled on an armchair in the living room corner, not entirely hidden by shadows but enough so that the grimm wouldn't notice him right away.
It didn't take long for him to hear the grimm's vehicle pull up in the driveway and the car door slam shut. The grimm's voice was deep and normal in volume and it seemed he was on the phone with his partner at the blutbad's house. Then, the grimm noticed that something wasn't right. Sergio knew the moment that had happened because all normalcy left the grimm's movements and voice. Suddenly, it was low and strained and Sergio waited for the man to enter.
Not surprisingly, the grimm entered with his gun in hand, held out in front of his body and poised to shoot in defense of his life. Sergio smirked at the other man but said nothing, patiently waiting for the grimm to notice his presence.
"What do you want?" the blue-eyed man said, his voice deep and almost gruff. Sergio saw the grimm's shoulders tense even further and he smiled some more.
"I merely wanted to come and have a chat with you," Sergio said, waving his hand towards the chair opposite him in an invitation to join him.
The grimm's jaw clenched and his hand tightened on the gun, his finger getting even closer to the trigger. "I have nothing to say to you," the grimm said.
"Not even that I have a right to remain silent and all that?" Sergio teased. He had doubted that the would be able to talk this out but he had thought to try anyways. Now that he had his answer, Sergio stood up, looking far more relaxed than he was and especially more so than the man that he faced.
They were pretty evenly matched, he noticed, as his eyes met the icy-blue of the man opposite him. Though Sergio was slightly slenderer than the other grimm, he also knew that he had more experience with hand-to-hand combat than his opponent. Since this man was a cop, he was far more comfortable with hiding behind his gun and badge than he was using fists and violence – odd traits in a grimm. But that was what made Sergio far more confident in his ability to triumph. Sadly, there seemed to be no weakness that Sergio could use in case he had to fight dirty, but that was life and he had a very good habit of rolling with the punches.
"Somehow, I doubted that you would let me arrest you," the grimm quipped with more humor in his voice than Sergio had thought he would.
Good, the man has a relatively good sense of comedic timing – that could come in handy later on. Sergio hated it when his captives lost their personalities and simply gave in. They made the whole point of their capture moot and it was then that Sergio usually decided they were better as target practice than bait. This one, though, Sergio could possibly have lots of fun with him before he got annoyed with him.
"I do, so, appreciate a person with intelligence," Sergio responded, coming around the coffee table so that there were no obstacles in his way or within the grimm's reach that could be thrown at him. He sighed overdramatically as he added, "It's something that is rare to find nowadays. I do believe that stupidity is going to be mankind's failing, not curiosity. Don't you agree?"
The grimm didn't respond but nor did he relax. Clearly the man was used to people attempting to throw him off-guard via polite conversation and he wasn't planning on falling for it this time. With another sigh, Sergio said, "I had hoped to settle this like gentleman." He paused, his smile now turning feral with glee. "But I suppose the hard way isn't so bad either."
He leapt at the grimm, testing the other man's reflexes and smiling more when he discovered them to be better than he had originally believed. From what he'd heard about the grimm's encounter with Kelly, Sergio hadn't believed that Nick was very quick but clearly that had been only because Kelly had been his mother, whom he had believed to be dead.
The grimm shot and Sergio found himself barely escaping with a graze high on his left shoulder as he leapt towards his opponent. He didn't give the man another chance to shoot, choosing to forcefully knock the gun out of the man's hands via slamming the right wrist into the nearest wall with his left hand while his right grabbed for the grimm's throat. The hit didn't phase Nick. Indeed, he barely seemed to notice it at all even though Sergio knew it as fact that it had caused pain. Instead, the grimm grabbed hold of Sergio's right hand and pulled, wrenching his grasp loose enough so that Nick could breathe again.
Once he had had some air in his lungs, the grimm head-butted Sergio. Having seen it coming, Sergio had stepped back enough that the blow struck him on the chin rather than the nose, and he pivoted, giving his all to a kick straight at the grimm's abdomen. Nick scooted back and out of the way, taking up a fighting stance in the doorway between the living room and the entry. Now Sergio understood how this grimm had avoided the reapers – he was wily and thought quickly on his feet.
Sergio's lips peeled back into a snarl and he lunged for the grimm, going low to avoid the right hook that was no doubt coming his way. He tackled Nick to the ground, feeling satisfied when he heard the man's skull crack against the floor followed by a grunt of pain. Sergio scrambled up, sliding along the grimm's body in a rather provocative way had this been a different scenario entirely, pinning him to the floor. Nick bucked but it did no good; though they were similar heights and sizes, Sergio had gravity on his side and he was putting all he had into keeping the man on the floor.
For the second time, his right hand clamped around Nick's throat, applying extra pressure this time to make sure that it left a mark. "I had wanted to bring you in willingly," he said in between slight pants. The fight had gotten his adrenaline going and his heart was racing enough that his breathing had sped up. He squeezed again, smiling, when he saw the grimm going red in the face. "But I supposed this will have to do."
Had he not been so busy taunting the grimm, he might have seen that the man had been reaching for, and had found, his gun. Alas, he hadn't noticed it until the thing had been slammed into the side of his face, making his vision black out for a moment and his grip to loosen. He didn't take long in re-orienting himself but by the time he had, the grimm had switched their positions and Sergio found himself lying on the hardwood floor with the grimm's gun pointed at his head.
"How about I bring you in?" the grimm asked, panting as well.
The red around Nick's throat spoke of early bruising but while Sergio was glad to see it, it wasn't that that made him smile. Once he had regained enough of himself, he had slowly begun to reach for the knife that he kept in his pant's pocket. It wasn't a very big one. He had stabbed plenty of people with it and knew that the most damage it would cause would be a relatively deep gash which would need stitches, but he also knew that that would be enough.
"I think not," he said before he rammed it into the grimm's right side. The blade struck home, slicing through the grimm's shirt with relative ease (ah the importance of keeping one's tools sharp!) and bit into flesh and muscle with some resistance.
Above him, Nick cried out, dropping his hold of the gun as his body instinctively reached to pull out the weapon. Sergio pushed the other grimm off him, offering a kick to the man's side while he was down, and then reached, grabbing a fistful of hair and clenching tightly as he tilted the grimm's head back.
He was just about to deliver a blow that would allow him to take the grimm from his home and disappear when he inhaled and smelled Sean close by. With a grimace of disappointment and not a little hate, Sergio kicked the grimm in the head, pulled out his knife and disappeared out the back door just as the front door was opening.
TBC