July 4th

Worried about the chance that Adalind could over excerpt herself, Nick asked that they have their fourth of July celebration at home.

He set up an area with her lounge chair and added a little table next to it for whatever she may need.

"Please do not leave this chair. You need to rest and relax. Whenever you want anything, just call for me and I will get it for you."

"What if you're busy somewhere else?"

"Won't matter. I'll keep my ear trained for you throughout the day."

Nick was certain that with his special hearing, he would always know when his pregnant wife needed him.

Adalind thought he was being over protective, but still agreed, loving the attention from her husband.

And the thing about being a hexenbiest, even a pregnant one, is that she could still do a lot of things without leaving her chair.

Grimm

Monroe and Rosalee arrived first with their triplets.

Nick laughed when he saw Monroe at the door with his arms full of toys.

"You know my son is more than willing to share his toys?"

"My kids refused to even leave the house without their favorite possessions." Monroe growled.

The blutbad became more irritated with his cubs when he saw they completely ignored the toys they had insisted on bringing in favor of playing with the sticks and rocks Kelly showed them on the edge of the Burkhardt's backyard.

Grimm

The Wurstners insisted on bringing lots of food for the cookout, even though Nick told them it wasn't needed.

"Nonsense, I know your Adalind loves my strawberry peach pie." Phoebe Wurstner declared as she carried in a large basket of things along with the mentioned pie.

"We also brought things for your family to snack on later. And another blanket. I don't know why they made another blanket. They gave Adalind twelve at her baby shower."

"One can never have too many blankets." Phoebe told her husband.

"It's summer!"

"And before you know it, it will be autumn and winter." Phoebe retorted to her husband's argument. "Adalind loves autumn. It's her favorite season. I am sure she will want to sit outside, with the children, and enjoy the fresh crisp air from time to time. She'll need blankets for that."

Shooting a pointed look at Bud, she suggested, "Maybe the men of the lodge could make themselves useful and make sure the grimm hexenbiest family has an outdoor fire pit and plenty of wood for both outdoor and indoor activities. Preferably before it's too cold."

"It will be taken care of, dear." Bud replied dutifully, knowing it was pointless to argue with an eisbiber woman.

"Nick already made me a fire pit." Adalind informed the beaver wesen couple as they greeted each other.

"My favorite witch loves to sit outside under the moonlight. I wanted to make sure she wouldn't be cold while doing it."

"Everyone enjoys it, especially in the summer. We love making s'mores in the evenings. It's our special family time."

The shining eyes and the soft smiles on the couple revealed just how much love existed in their unique family. And it was obvious to anyone who even glanced at them.

"Nick, stop making moon eyes at your wife and help me with this cooler!" Hank Griffin shouted.

"How did he know you were looking at your wife?" Phoebe asked.

"Because Nick's always looking at Adalind." Monroe quipped, moving toward the front of the house to help Hank.

Wu showed up fifteen minutes later, with several massive bags full of fireworks.

"Ooohh, can we light them now?" Kelly asked excitedly.

"When it gets dark, buddy." Nick told his son.

"Yeah, the first important thing to do is eat." Wu said.

"And that's my queue to get the burgers started." Nick announced, heading toward his grill.

Trubel offered to help, but since neither she or Wu could really be trusted with the food, such as preventing themselves from snacking on it, she was encouraged to relax and play backyard games with the others.

Even being a grimm, she didn't have too much of an advantage over the others. Every adult, both wesen human and hybrid, had skills.

However, those skills were useless when the children decided to interrupt, get in the way, and steal whatever the adults were playing with at the moment.

Every game turned into chase, with the adults pursuing a child that was laughing and screaming as they were running away. So the only ones to be declared winners were the kids.

Everyone had worked up quite the appetite, so were thrilled when Nick announced, "Time to eat." and immediately went for the food.

"Baby, could you put barbeque sauce on my burger?" Adalind requested. "And lots of pickles."

Nick prepared her plate just the way she wanted it. The food was piled so high he had to support the plate from the bottom to keep it from spilling.

Once he refilled her glass with lemonade, he got his own plate and sat beside her. And he didn't say a word when she stole a chip from his plate and used it to scoop up some baked beans.

Grimm

"Daddy, it's dark out, can we light the sparklers now?" Kelly asked.

The triplets all joined in, "Yes, uncle Nick! Time for sparklers!"

The pack floated to Nick's hand.

"You're supposed to be resting." He scolded his wife fondly.

"You told me you didn't want me leaving this chair. I didn't leave the chair." She retorted with a cheeky grin.

"Alright you. I should have known a lawyer would find a loophole. Especially a hexenbiest lawyer."

While Nick was setting up the small fireworks, Diana brought out the large s'mores platter she and her mother had prepared.

Along with the marshmallows, hershey bars, and graham crackers, there were other types of cookies, chocolate bars and a few different flavored marshmallows. Even some sliced bananas and strawberries, for those who wanted to pretend to be healthy.

"Adalind and Diana saw a Pinterest pin of various types of s'mores arrangements." Nick explained. "We have something like this most every evening."

"Don't let him fool you." Adalind shot in. "He never hesitates to grab two peanut butter cups to put on each of his s'mores. And he always uses the chocolate marshmallows."

"He also uses the chocolate chip cookies." Diana added. "Mom likes using the shortbread cookies with the milky ways and vanilla marshmallows."

"Stop being an informant on your family and help your brother make his s'more." Nick told his stepdaughter teasingly.

Once everyone had made their s'more, Adalind waved her hand to set off the fireworks. She and Diana also made sure the sound was muffled, so it wouldn't disturb anyone.

Nick held his son in one arm and kept the other around his wife as they watched the light show.

"Next year, she'll be able to watch this with us." Adalind said softly, stroking her protruding belly.

Nick felt the love he held for her overwhelming him. The fireworks were forgotten. The view of his beautiful wife, heavy with their child, was the one he preferred.