Mixed Messages
Chapter 4
A Grimm and a friend
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Neither Sandra nor Misty expected a Grimm to be anything like Lauren. Grimms relentlessly hunted wesen and chopped heads. They didn't buy groceries, cook dinner, go to work, or wrangle babysitters.
Lauren seemed normal, down to earth, and completely comfortable around Wesen. She was good with kids and even accepted their family situation. She made an easy friend. She was a single mom and her son, Jess, was two.
Sandra looked over her coffee cup at Lauren, sitting on her green trimmed couch, drinking a cup of tea, and thought, There's an actual, honest to goodness, real life, Grimm, inside my house! On purpose, and I invited her here! I bet Mom and Dad never thought that would happen in a million years. She thought back to her highschool yearbook superlatives and chuckled, I'm just lucky "Most likely to get knocked up by a Grimm" wasn't available.
Sandra watched Amanda play with Lauren's son and said, "Jess is such a cute little guy. You said you aren't from here. Do you ever get back to see family?"
Lauren matter-of-factly said, "No. My parents were murdered when I was a kid, and, well, his father and I aren't really talking." She stared at her son, happily playing with Sandra's daughter, and said, "He lives in Europe and never wanted any kids. He's always jetting around on some sort of adventure, saving the world. I tried to stay there, near his family, but it didn't work out. Work transferred me back here, and I haven't heard from him in over eighteen months."
"I'm so sorry."
Lauren looked at their house, the pictures and albums full of memories, sighed deeply, and said, "It's ok. We dated for two years. He left when Jess was one month old. All the endless nights with no sleep, crying, dirty diapers, falling asleep when you are cooking dinner, trying to chase down a store that sells diapers in the middle of the night, and working a job at the same time, I guess it was just too much, but I wouldn't trade my Jess for the world."
Sandra's eyes got a bit misty, and she said, "It was thirteen years ago, and I still remember literally dreaming of a nap. I was so exhausted, one night, that I forgot to put the lid on Mandy's bottle, and poured milk all over her face. It's not easy, raising a baby."
Lauren chuckled, then sighed, set her cup down, and said, "Unfortunately, there are so few of Grimms left in the world that my dating prospects are very limited. Normal Kehrsite guys always think I'm crazy. Dating Wesen is mostly impossible because the decent ones are always convinced I'm going to murder them in their sleep."
Sandra smiled politely, and said, "I can't imagine."
Lauren looked up from a plate of warm sugar cookies, laughed, and said, "I'm amazed that you actually managed to find a Grimm, much less get pregnant by one. The children of most Grimms never Grimm, they just turn out Kehrsite. Mandy is unique. It's so cool that she can wogue. To be honest, I'm pretty jealous of her claws."
Sandra chuckled over her cup of coffee and said, "Well, that wasn't exactly my plan. I still swear you're the first Grimm I've ever seen, besides Mandy."
Lauren winked at Sandra, and said, "Any idea who her father is? I'm just askin', for a friend."
"No, it was a long time ago."
Sandra peered at Lauren, swirled her coffee and found herself tapping the spoon on her saucer. She fidgeted in her seat, shifted side to side, looked down at her toes, paused, then asked, "Lauren, what do Grimms do? All the stories I ever heard were about axe murderers hacking peoples heads off for woguing in public. You don't really seem like that sort."
Lauren took a slow sip of her tea and said, "We do all sorts of stuff. One is a police officer. Another works in a factory. Another is an accountant, and I sell glue."
"I guess that never occurred to me. Do you ever, you know, hunt Wesen?"
Lauren paused to consider the question, then said, "Sometimes the authorities get us to deal with the nightmares. There are horrible Wesen out there that you can't prosecute because there's no way to explain the situation in Kehrsite court. How would you explain a Bludbad kidnapping and eating children? How would you explain witnesses seeing a wogued Gelumcaedus tearing somebody's arm off during a bank robbery? How about a Manticore pimping women by woguing and threatening them?"
"Huh, I never thought of that. So is that like, you know, sanctioned?"
"Yeah, of course. It's crazy that Wesen all teach their kids about the dangers of Grimms - but the Wesen Council actually coordinates that sort of thing. They almost always use Wesen assassins."
Sandra stared out the window, and a her mind drifted back. Remember Tyler? He dropped out of high school and started robbing stores, wogued. All the Wesen in town worried about mobs showing up in their yards with pitchforks and torches. Then, one day, three men walked up and shot him, right there, in public. They were never arrested, and everything just returned to normal. Everybody knew it was The Wesen Council. She said, "Huh, I never thought of that. It makes sense. Hey, is there a chance her father wasn't a Grimm at the time."
"Most Grimm guys Grimm pretty late. Twenty-five to thirty years old is pretty normal. Girls usually Grimm pretty early. Mandy is right on track."
"Could that be why I didn't know. I wogued to check if they were Wesen or not. Is there any way to, you know, identify a Grimm before they Grimm?"
"I don't know. Most Grimms don't even know their eyes turn black when Wesen wogue. Anyway, remember that Black Claw thing a few years ago? Their leaders were murdering any Wesen who wouldn't go along. The Authorities brought in a few Grimms to deal with the Black Claw leaders. It just evaporated once the leaders were gone."
"Those Black Claw guys threatened to kill me because I was married to Misty. We hid Mandy from them. They forced most of the guys in Wook's gym to go along under threat of killing their families."
"I know. They had no choice. Those Black Claw guys kidnapped Wook's wife and son to force him to join. A lot of good guys got killed because of a few bad guys."
"I heard they wiped out the entire Wesen Council."
"They did. They even went after local Wesen Council liaisons and representatives. There was only one guy serving on the original council that escaped. They basically had to re-establish it from scratch."
Amanda noticed a break in the conversation, and asked, "So, do you chop off Wesen's heads?"
Sandra turned red, but Lauren simply shrugged, and said, "Yeah, I guess, if I'm forced to."
Amanda's ears instantly perked up. She picked up Jess, tickled his stomach, and asked, "Do you use a huge axe?"
"Nah, I use this." Lauren laughed, and slid her short, black, heavily scarred machete out of the sheath on her back. "Have you ever tried carrying an axe under your dress?"
Sandra looked on, and thought, I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be a joke, but look at that thing. It's got a million miles on it. She found herself leaning away and fidgeting in her chair.
Lauren noticed Sandra's sudden unease, slid the machete back into it's hidden sheath, and said, "Sorry. My parents were murdered when I was little. Killing a Grimm is sort of a badge of courage among a lot of Wesen, and I can't take any chances with my son."
Amanda's eyes twinkled. "Mom! Can I have one of those for Christmas?"
"No!"
"Aw! Mom!"
Lauren's expression changed to concern. "Sandra, we probably need to start training Amanda on weapons. I get attacked a lot because I'm a Grimm. Wesen tend to go crazy and she's going to need to defend herself. Trust me. The first time I heard the word 'Grimm' I was ten and a Skalengek was on top of me tearing my shirt off."
Sandra looked away, closed her eyes, and gritted her teeth. She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, and said, "Misty and I were both raped and molested when we were Mandy's age. That's why I got into Jiujitsu. I swore that would never happen to my Mandy. That's why I always pushed her in martial arts. I know there are a lot of bad guys out there, but still, this is my little girl! I'm not sure I'm ready for that, yet."
"I understand."
Amanda grumbled, disappointed.
Unfortunately, that day came sooner than later.
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