CHAPTER TWO

QUESTIONS

The next morning, Lena woke up to the sun shining over her head from the window. She didn't mind waking up early. At her last job, she kept all sorts of long hours. So had her husband as an ER surgical resident. She could pretty much wake up and fall asleep whenever she needed to.

She quickly fished out an outfit of jeans and a tunic shirt since she had a couple establishing care appointments with her clients today. She padded her way downstairs as quietly as she could in case Nick was still asleep. But as soon as she made it to the first floor, she could smell bacon and eggs and toasting bread. She followed the delicious smells to the kitchen to see Nick at the stove cooking up a storm.

He looked up with a shy smile when he noticed her, "Hey, good morning. I hope you're not vegan or anything… I made a little breakfast."

"No, I'm not," she answered. "It smells great. But you didn't have to do this for me – not that I'm saying you are…"

He chuckled, "It's okay. You're my guest and you had a lot of information dumped on you last night."

She crossed her arms and leaned her shoulder against the entryway of the kitchen, "I guess it hasn't really sunk in yet. That… people other than human exist. And I'm not even one of them but two kinds. It makes me wonder about… pretty much every aspect of my life."

"Like what?" Nick asked as he dished food onto a couple plates for them and lead her to the table in the dining room.

She thanked him quietly as she accepted a fork and started eating the eggs. "Like my father's death. Was it really a carjacking gone wrong? Did Freddy really think of me as his niece or was I some sort of professional obligation? Does whatever my mother is or was have to do with why she skipped out? Everything in my past feels like one big cover up now." As she finished her brief rant, she blushed when she realized all she'd let slip to this practical stranger. She awkwardly cleared her throat and took a sip of her water, "Sorry…"

"Don't worry about it," Nick told her, trying not to probe more, fighting his cop instinct to question. "I was left with a lot of questions when I found out I was a Grimm right after my Aunt Marie died before she could answer them. Your worries are all valid, and I don't know how to answer these questions. But we'll all help you get the answers."

She shyly smiled and continued eating, quietly saying, "I appreciate it. I have a couple appointments set up today and I turn my phone on silent for them. In case you try to reach me, and I don't answer."

"Appointments?" Nick asked. "With the doctor?"

She guessed Rosalee hadn't mentioned every detail of their first meeting to the men. "No, I'm a midwife. Have been for about a year. Luckily some former clients in Phoenix knew some potential clients here in Portland so I had a client base to move here and still get an income. I won't be gone long."

"You don't have to check in with me," Nick told her. "Being here is for your protection. Not to monitor you. We just want to help you."

"I know…" Lena replied quietly. "I guess I'm just used to letting someone know where I'm going to be or where I am."

Nick noticed her hand start twisting her wedding band around her finger thoughtfully. "Your husband?"

She nodded, twisting the band around.

"What was his name?" He thought that might be the safest question. He wouldn't dare ask about his death.

"Kevin Sato," she smiled as she said his name. "He hyphenated his name too when we got married. His father was dead set against it, but his mother loved the idea."

Nick didn't ask another question, not wanting to push her too much. After clearing his plate, he cleared his throat and told her, "I've got to go to work. But help yourself to the kitchen or laundry room or anything you need. Unless a case pops up, I should be home in time to get dinner or something. If you need me, Rosalee gave you my number, right?"

"And hers. And Monroe's," she nodded along, following him into the kitchen to wash her empty plate. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

Nick didn't look as certain as her. "We don't have any idea who wanted you out here or what they're planning. We need to keep you safe."

"Then I'll keep my ringer on," she suggested, setting her wet plate aside.

He agreed as he collected his wallet and firearm and strung on his jacket as he approached the door. He stopped just before he opened the door and fished his hands into the key bowl, picking up Juliette's old key. He paused a bit with the purple metal key in his hand before handing it to Lena, "Your key… so you can get in and out if I'm not home."

Lena accepted it with an awkward smile, "Right, thanks. I guess, I'll see you later. I'm planning to stop by the shop on my way back tonight."

"Rosalee will be happy to see you," Nick commented before he finally made his way out the door and to work.

Hank was still on one crutch when he greeted Nick at their desks, "Hey, so why were you so radio silent last night?"

"Someone showed up to the spice shop looking for Freddy," Nick started vaguely.

Hank frowned, leaning forward and speaking quietly, "Someone… wesen? Or criminal? I mean, we caught Freddy dealing in stolen organs."

"She's some kind of wesen, but not a criminal," Nick answered just a stealthily. "She was Freddy's pseudo-niece, he knew her father. He's been protecting her, her whole life. From what, we don't know. According to Rosalee, her father was a fuchsbau but her mother is some other kind of wesen. Apparent hybrid wesen were a big taboo when she was born, so Freddy's been hiding her, and feeding her this tea that stops her transforming."

"Well, what did she have to say about it?" Hank asked. "Did she tell you who was after her? What's her name, anyway?"

"Lena Kühn-Sato, and she had no idea she was anything other than human," Nick revealed. "Freddy and her father never told her what she was, and her mother walked out on her when she was a baby. Freddy has been feeding her that tea her whole life to hide it from the world and her."

"But then Freddy died," Hank said. "Is she still drinking that tea?"

"She ran out," Nick said. "She could woge any day now. Rosalee and Monroe are going to help her with all of that. Meanwhile, she's staying with me."

Hank leaned back at that revelation. "Whoa… how do you feel about that?" Since Juliette left, Nick had been a little closed off from the others. As willing to help others as he's always been, Hank didn't expect him to have a woman living with him.

Nick shrugged, "She needs protection. I have room."

Hank saw that Nick wasn't going to elaborate much more on his feelings about the situation and moved on to telling his partner about all the paperwork they had to do for their last case.

Lena had made it through her two appointments quickly enough without getting too frustrated. With being a midwife with patients who didn't want to give birth in a hospital, there was almost always a relative hovering around trying to talk them out of it. They believed that western medicine was the only way to deliver a baby safely, along with an epidural to help with the pain. Lena thought they just didn't want to be seen as weaker or lesser mothers for giving birth in a hospital instead of all-natural way that came with home births.

But Lena didn't let them insult her and calmly answered all of their questions. It seemed to help when she revealed having prior medical training, and agreeing that if certain complications arise, it's best for the mother-to-be to take the birth to the hospital.

It was still mid-afternoon when she got through her second and last appointment of the day, scheduling follow ups with both of the impending mothers. She then hopped in her car and headed to the spice shop. Rosalee smiled when she saw her walking in.

"Hey. How are you doing?" Rosalee asked as she walked around the counter to greet her.

"Fine," she answered. "Met up with my patients as planned. Now, I'd like to know a bit more about… wesen?"

Rosalee nodded at her pronunciation and said, "Well, any questions you have, I can try my best to answer in a way you'll understand."

"So…. You didn't even know you were wesen until after you woged for the first time?" Lena asked, a bit overwhelmed, as she sat on the cot in the spice shop while Rosalee answered her questions and worked.

Rosalee had just told Lena the story of her first woge, with Freddy there to goad and tease her until he finally took pity on her and showed her what her face looked like. "Yeah, it was uncomfortable, I was so hot and sweaty, and I had no idea what was going on."

"Guess it's good I got to you now then," Lena remarked. "You might take pity on me and walk me through it when I finally woge. By the way, do you know when that might be? Like… how do I know when it'll happen?"

Rosalee seemed the most uncertain so far then. "Well… we don't know when the woge will come out now because you've been drinking that tea for so long. But it kind of just washes over you when it decides to. I felt a lot of hot flashes, and pressure. And then it comes out and it's just release and starts to feel natural the more you practice."

"You have to practice?" Lena muttered.

She shrugged, "It depends. With me and Monroe, we don't let our wesen side overrule us. We're more human. There are more animalistic wesen that easily woge and let that side take over. It all just depends on the person, or wesen."

"So, I should watch out for hot flashes?" Lena guessed. "I guess I can do that. Did you find anything in Freddy's things that tells you what my mother was? I mean, is."

Rosalee sadly shook her head, "No, he doesn't mention your mother at all. It seems that he really only got involved with you and Tomas once she left."

Lena sighed, "Great."

Rosalee walked over and sat next to her on the cot, taking her hand, "We'll figure it out. Sooner or later, you'll woge, we'll see it and we'll have an easier guessing what your mother could be."

"You made it sound like wesen hybrid kids are rare," Lena commented. "But you and Monroe are two different wesen. Won't your kids be hybrids?"

Rosalee blanched at the mention of kids, "That's a… long way off. But I see your point. Nowadays, it's not as rare. Blood purist groups have been banned for years, even if there are always going to be people like them who think wesen shouldn't intermix. But a few decades ago? When you were born, it was still pretty unthinkable to have inter-wesen couples and mixed families."

Lena leaned her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her fist, "Maybe that's why she left…" At Rosalee's questioning glance, she added, "My mother. I know she and my dad never married. Maybe she never intended to stay with him, but then I came along and ruined her rebellious wesen fling."

Rosalee saw that while Lena was attempting to hide the old pain of her mother's abandonment behind logical speculation, there was still a little girl inside that missed her mother and wondered if she was to blame for her leaving. "I don't think it'll make a difference to guess why she left. Maybe she just didn't know how to be the mother you deserved."

Lena snorted crudely, "Instead I got an invisible one. As well as a dead dad, fake Uncle, and string of temporary band-aid families until I was out on my own."

Rosalee still didn't know what to say. Lena's words were so blunt and vulnerable, but her face masked over all of it with this steel wall. "Now you have us. Me, Monroe, Nick. We'll all be here for you every step of the way."

Idly twisting the wedding band on her finger, Lena just hummed in response, "Right. I know that. I just can't stop thinking about what I don't know."

When Lena returned to Nick's house in the early evening, she had takeout in hand. She'd asked Rosalee what kind of food Nick liked, because she wanted to thank him for taking her in, as well as making breakfast that morning. Rosalee didn't really have anything helpful to say, so Lena just opted for some classic burgers, fries, and milkshakes to go.

But when she walked into the house with her spare key, she dropped the food just inside the living room when she saw Nick laying sprawled out on the couch, skin white as a sheet. She ran to his side and felt around for a pulse and shivered at how cold his skin was. She waited and waited for a pulse, until it finally did beat, but it was way too slow.

Without a second thought, she raced up to her guest room and yanked of her medical bag until it popped out of her suitcase, and she raced back down to the living room again. Dropped the bag beside the couch, she unzipped it to pull out a pen light. She tested Nick's wrist for a pulse first, and still found it alarmingly slow. Clicking on her pen light, she reached up to pull his eyelid open, so she could test their response to light. As soon as the light hit his pupil though, Nick let out a startled yelp and sat up, now awake.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his eyes flinching away from her light.

Clicking it off, she stood. "Checking your vitals." She watched as his color rapidly returned, and he sat in front of her alive and well. "You looked dead."

"What?" he asked, getting to his feet as well. "That's ridiculous."

"Nick…" she said slowly, "I used to be a paramedic. Your pulse was almost nonexistent, I could barely feel you breathing, you were white as a ghost, and freezing to touch. You looked dead."

She could tell behind his eyes that he did seem worried, but also in denial. It was then that he explained the ordeal he'd recently gone through with Rosalee, Monroe, his partner, Hank, and captain, Sean Renard. An unusual wesen called a Cracher-Mortel – that could woge into a puffer fish like being and spit on people to turn them into mindless zombies – raised an army in Portland under Royal orders. After luring Nick and the others to a ship yard, they separated Nick from the others so the wesen, Samedi, could turn him and take him to Vienna to either die or be a slave to the Royals.

Only, it affected Nick differently than a normal human. He didn't obey Samedi's orders like he was supposed to and was too strong to be stopped. After being smuggled on a plain, he took it down to escape into Portland, and went on a violent trek through the city before his friends finally stopped him and cured him. But he was still dealing with after effects of the whole ordeal. Namely, he didn't tire easily, his pulse was slower. Hank had noticed these little things and forced Nick to see a doctor. After many stress testings, the doctor could find nothing inherently wrong with him. In fact, he seemed too healthy. It was like nothing they'd ever seen before.

"So… you're like a zombie Grimm?" Lena questioned.

Nick shook his head, a small amused smile on his lips, "Not exactly. I'm not a zombie. I'm just different."

"So… super Grimm," she quipped, finally returning her pen light to her medical bag and zipping it up. She prepared to take it back up to her room when she saw the to-go bags of food on the floor and a spilled milkshake and remembered what she'd been doing when she got there. "Damn. Dinner is probably cold by now."

"Dinner?" Nick questioned.

Walking over to pick up the bags, she answered, "Yeah, I picked up some burgers on the way back from the spice shop."

"You didn't have to do that," he said, but quickly helped her clean up the overturned milkshake.

"I'm not a deadbeat roommate," she joked. "But I forgot about the food when I saw you… looking dead."

"Well, I'm sure we can salvage it just yet," he said. They opted to just toss the food in the microwave and have a nice dinner at the dinner table. She was surprised when Nick grabbed her a beer without really thinking about it.

"Thanks," she said as she accepted it.

After some silent chewing, Nick broached a new subject, "So… you went from being an EMT in Arizona, to a midwife in Portland? Big change."

Swallowing her bite, she just shrugged, "I needed a big change. After Kevin died, I couldn't stand being a paramedic. All I saw were traumatic injuries, patients I couldn't save. Even the mild cases or run-of-the-mill fainting spells didn't break it up enough. I wanted to do something else. And bringing life into the world seemed like the right thing. So, I got my training and built my name, and then Freddy convinced me to come here."

Nick didn't know what to say to that. He could tell she didn't necessarily share so much.

That thought was confirmed when she blushed and turned away to sip at her milkshake. "Yeah… so, you're a cop. What's that like?"

After that, conversation dwindled off of the heavier topics and reverted to easy back and forth over microwaved food and cold beer until they both retired to bed for the night.