Clearly, Adalind had lost her senses and her incredible weakness for that man bubbled through to the surface.

She'd originally planned to whip up a salad for one, for dinner, before that timely call from Nick. Its un-expectant suddenness had somehow caused her to make a buoyant last minute decision, ordering some takeaways for two from her favourite restaurant. Something had possessed her, since normally she diligently stuck to her rules of keeping Nick at bay; Adalind recognised the danger in playing close to that enticing Grimm flame.

Yep, she definitely lost her mind as her body buzzed with heightened illicit expectation. She forced herself to keep a cool head. It was just dinner, an act of kindness, not a date, a once off, never to be repeated offer, she reasoned.

Adalind shyly peeked at the rear view mirror as her hand moved to her unruly hair and immediately chided herself for the love-struck actions, duly reminding herself she wasn't going on a date with Nick Burkhardt. Therefore, it didn't matter what her physical appearance was, she resolved and returned her focus to the road ahead of her. It didn't matter, not one bit, she thought helplessly.

At the next set of traffic lights, Adalind opened her glove compartment and took out her Handy Bristle hairbrush….

The sun had already set as Adalind pulled into her street and in the distance saw the familiar Land Cruiser parked on the street beside her driveway. "There's Dada's car," and there he was, leaning nonchalantly against the hood of his car. Nervously, she engaged her son in mindless babble rather than acknowledge the wreckage Nick wrought of her emotions at the prospect of seeing his beautifully stubbled face. At this point, she was worse than a teenager was from the way she acted at the mere thought of him. Get a grip, Adalind!

Adalind slowly pulled into her driveway, turned off her engine and took a moment to breath. He was only there for his son. When she looked up, Nick was already standing by the passenger side of her car, waiting for her to open the backseat door to his son. Not wanting to delay their reunion any longer, Adalind unlocked the door. With little to no effort, Nick pulled Kelly out of his seat and her heart lurched painfully against her chest at the sight of a father giving his son a kiss and bear hug as if they hadn't seen one another in centuries. It was hard not to admire Nick's devotion towards his son, something that gnawed at Adalind for the decision she had made in leaving the loft.

"Hello Nick," She said dryly, affecting an image of calmness in his presence. Even in the dimmed light of day, her eyes could make out how haggard he looked but she kept her comments to herself. She saw the frustration etched all over his face and his clothes hung a little too loosely for comfort. It was no longer her problem, watching over him, she tried to tell herself, and still she bought him dinner…. Whenever Nick was neck deep in a case that he couldn't solve, he was too often negligent of the little things in life, as if he was a machine running on nothing but oil and water. Well he wasn't.

"Hey. I'm sorry to come here so late. I know it's not what we agreed on—"

"Nonsense, he is your son and you are more than welcome to see him whenever you need." Cold comfort that was, she thought, but she bit her tongue and grabbed the bags in the back of the car, including the takeaways. "I got us some Mexican, you are welcome to stay, you like."

"Thank you." He said and helped her into her sparsely furnished two-bedroom-two-bath Craftsman house. Most of her belongings and that of her mother's had long been auctioned to settle old debts before Diana was born, and since Kelly came into her life, she'd made no time to furnish her new home barring her office wardrobe, relegating the task to the far back of her mind. Otherwise, the house brimmed to the rafters with Kelly's belongings, modest and designer, she couldn't help it now that she could afford buy whatever she wanted regardless of the price tag.

Once inside, Adalind left father and son happily alone in the living room to prepare Kelly's dinner and dish up the food for Nick. Despite her focus on the task in front of her, she couldn't help gleaning the thundering well of aggravation raging inside him. A rarity for her…sensing other's emotions so easily, one of the "perks" of being what she was. The heightened intuition is what sometimes made it easier to manipulate people, detecting the weak spots to bend them to their will, but that was never her specialty or else her life would look vastly different.

Adalind had to learn the hard way that her "gift" was the furthest thing from being one, to sense more than she had bargained for, as on their last night together. Adalind had sensed Nick's confusion, fear but mostly, his anger and it had frightened her. She thought she was strong enough to deal with whatever he threw her way but she wasn't. She was weak with longing and couldn't handle the rejection so she struck first. This "gift" was, in reality, a curse, that forced her to take back the reins of her life for better or for worse.

A sudden boom of laughter cracked the air around her from the other room; clearly, the two Burkhardt boys were having the time of their lives and for the first time since she returned, Adalind was at ease.

"When did he get so boisterous all of a sudden? He won't sit still." Nick called out to Adalind from the lounge.

She smiled at the conjured image of Nick chasing after his belligerent son all over her living room floor. Her heart just about burst with joy, she had missed this, being together as a family.

"I think he gets from you or wait…maybe he gets it from me. You did chase me around for quite a bit a few years back." She laughed before shame arrested the mirth bubbling in her chest at the reminder of their—her chequered past.

"He gets it from both of us," he said without missing a beat, laughter in his voice, as if acknowledging she'd done her fair share of chasing him in times recent. Adalind could feel Nick's eyes on her back as if willing her to face him. She didn't.

"Maybe he's trying to tell us something," He added before Kelly drew back his attention away from her rigid back. Adalind exhaled deeply; unaware she'd held her breath during that short but charged exchange with the Grimm she loved. She needed to get away suddenly, to get some air, and clear the heady fog clouding her mind fast.

To her relief, Kelly's food was ready, sensing her escape well at hand. She picked up both dishes and headed into the dining area, "Dinner's served." she said in a pitched tone.

With Kelly in his arms, Nick joined her at the table and noticed she'd only set up for just the two of them, "You're not joining us?" he exclaimed as he secured Kelly into his seat. Adalind couldn't tell if she'd heard disappointment in his voice or not.

"It's not necessary. I have a backlog of work I need to get through. I'll just eat in my study and leave you two guys to yourselves." She said, averting his piercing eyes and turned to leave but Nick quickly pulled back her hand, stopping her in her tracks. It wasn't much of a grip, a few of their digits curled around one another, barely intertwined…the first time they'd physically touched in months.

Adalind's heart began to race wildly. She felt the steady beating of his through her fingers.

"Stay…." She heard him say gently.

"I ca—"

"Please…." He cut her off before she could deny his request.

She dared to her eyes to his and she knew right there and then, she could never say no to him. Nick took a step towards her, towering over her and making it impossible for her to escape to the safety of her bedroom as her head swirled, intoxicated by his rugged presence. Finally, unable to take any more, she willed herself to look away from the intensity in his eyes, took a deep breath for courage and instead inhaling his heady scent, rendering her knees weak with want. She wanted him too much for her own good. A Grimm. She felt the first tingles of a woge encroaching at the seams before she shut it down, somehow not brought on by fear but by something else entirely different, shocking, a desperate need to kiss his full lips.

Adalind shook her head as if it would automatically clearly all that went on inside of her, "Alright," she relented against her better judgement.

"Thank you," he said, a gentle grazing the edges of his kiss worthy lips.

It's just dinner, she reminded herself…dinner with the father of her child and nothing more than that, she thought, as she broke free of his spell to prepare her own plate in the kitchen.

So much churned inside her; Adalind could feel herself, a pitiful boat, caught in a tumult of emotions threatening to sink her quickly lest she fight desperately to clear to safety. It was so easy at the loft, even at the start of it all when they were nothing more than strangers-recently enemies who danced around each other for Kelly's sake. For the most part, they knew where things stood between them. She couldn't help but long for the simplicity of that time.

Adalind wearily made her way to the dining table where they sat down together as a family and yet not quite like it used to be.

*/*/*

He didn't know what had compelled him or had driven him to touch her. He only knew that it was urgent, to the point that it overpowered his common sense. He'd seen the look in her eyes before, one determined to walk away from him yet again and it had seared something inside of him and he could not bear its repeat. For the first time in his life, he envied his friend Monroe, or at the least wished he had a silver tongue, anything to help him put to words what he so desperately wanted…needed.

There were times in his life words had failed him when he needed to articulate his thoughts and feelings regarding everything he experienced. Juliette is one such example. He remembered clearly the night his aunt showed up at his door with the most fantastical of news he'd ever heard. He thought she was a bit delusional, likely suffering negative effects from the medication she took to fight off her cancer only for him to discover Aunt Marie was quite lucid and not crazy, but that meant he had to tell Juliette what he'd learned of his heritage and that was just crazy. According to her, either that or let Juliette go.

So much went wrong in too many lives because of the choices he had made that night, but then again, something right had come out of it as well, Kelly and to his surprise, Adalind, he thought without shame.

Now the two of them sat across one another in pregnant silence with Kelly, babbling obliviously between them. Nick had asked her to stay, essentially, to have dinner with him, yet beyond that…nothing. Not the words at the tip of his tongue left unsaid when he called her earlier that evening. Nothing on the throbbing, but delicious sensation her fingertips invoked when he took her petite hand in his only moments ago. He shifted his weight uncomfortably in his chair, his lower extremities out of her sight, thankfully, he thought

Nick spooned another mouthful of broccoli and sweet potato puree for Kelly, lifting it to his son's lips and stole a quick glance in Adalind's direction, making a hash of it when their eyes locked suddenly, arresting him on the spot. Adalind turned a pretty shade of pink and promptly dropped her gaze back to the Mexican dish before her, as if he'd caught her doing something naughty when it was his thoughts teetering dangerously between what's innocent and what clearly was not.

More silence, except for the clanking of stainless steel on expensive, fine crockery and Kelly's happy sounds, precursors to actual words. Neither did anything to stem the heat building around Nick's collar and other places, all of which now became unbearable unless he did something about it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked suddenly, catching him by surprise.

"Excuse me, pardon?" He didn't expect that sudden icebreaker.

"I mean the real reason you're here, other than the obvious," she said, her eyes landing squarely on their son. "Is it work…or the other thing?"

…His grimm-ing.

"The former or maybe the latter…or maybe it's both, we don't know yet."

"And that's frustrating you."

It wasn't a question.

"It's been over two weeks and we're no closer to catching this guy than at the beginning. I've never come across a crime scene so immaculately 'wiped clean,' literally no trace of DNA found other than the victim's. The owner of the dog hotel on Raleigh Str discovered her in the reception area. There wasn't as much as a stray dog hair on any surface of that crime scene." He exhaled, releasing some of the pent up feelings of aimlessness that had kept him company since he and Hank crossed beyond the first 48hours without any leads.

"…Nothing, not even in the surrounding areas?"

"We combed through that place thoroughly. There was no fingerprint. No handprint. No footprint; nothing!"

"Is that normal?"

"No, not here in Portland and nothing so low profile."

"What does that mean?" She asked him openly, her attention now focused solely on him and not Roci's special for the night.

Kelly let out a yelp at his father's negligence f his duties to feed him.

"Sorry little guy, here you go," Nick obliged him, spooning another helping to Kelly, feeling a little guilty that he'd forgotten him even if it was for a just a moment.

Adalind laughed, came around the table to placate their son with professions of adoration and adulation for their unconscionable behaviour towards him, much to Kelly's giddy delight, his petulant tantrum now past. Nick couldn't help but note Adalind had that effect on their son; sure, they both struggled at the beginning but now, no longer. She tilted her head in a questioning gesture towards Nick and he handed her the half-eaten bowl to carry on where he'd left off, her eyes solely on her son and not him. Nick pondered at the way her face lit up in that moment, wilfully losing himself in the nearness of her, her carefree and beautiful countenance.

It shouldn't have surprised Nick at all how easily this came upon him. Adalind Schade was a great mother…and a very beautiful woman, she always was, going as far back the first time he saw her face before she woged unexpectedly at his intrusive scrutiny but things were always complicated between them. As things, stood, it appeared as though nothing had changed. It should have been a relief to him. It wasn't and treading those waters frightened him somewhat.

There have only been a handful of times in Nick's life where the circumstances around him had left him floundering about as if her were about to drown, the loss of his parents when he was young…the death of his aunt and mother. He'd felt so lost, as the earth shifted furiously beneath him. He'd felt that uncertainty the day he found out he would become a father but he'd found his footing quickly thereafter, thankfully. The sun had shone in his life for the first time in a long time the moment he held Kelly in his arms, his heart swelling up so much, it nearly burst with unspeakable joy. For a while, he'd lost so much but Kelly and Adalind had brought him, dare he think it, happiness….

Kelly finished his dinner and Adalind burped and cleaned him up before she passed him off to Nick, but Kelly had other idea, clamouring for his favourite toy instead. Unfortunately, the vigour was rather short lived as Kelly's eyes drooped lazily shut.

"It looks like someone's already turned in for the night."

"Um—sorry," she said apologetically.

"It's okay, I'm glad for the time we had."

"Bye Kel'." He gave his son his goodbye kiss and handed him back to his mother.

"Say goodnight to Dada," she chimed but Kelly was already far gone to comply, and they both disappeared down the hallway into the master bedroom they shared together just as at the loft but only without Nick following this time round. He tried not to feel the sting of that realisation and failed miserably.

For two whole months, they had lived apart and instead of it getting easier to bear, it grew harder for Nick. He hated saying goodbye.

Adalind was gone for no more than ten minutes yet it felt like a lifetime, enough time to wrestle with himself a hundred times over on whether he should make a quick and quite exit or stay. He hadn't come to a decision when Adalind joined him at the table, clearing away the empty dishes.

"I should probably get going myself," he said, testing the waters a bit.

"Oh, you don't have to." She said suddenly as she walked back into the dining area, with a bottle of beer on one hand and a glass of deep red wine in the other and the two of them stood awkwardly, facing one another. Adalind turned a warm shade under Nick's gaze, a peculiar match to his own.

"Are you sure?" He said as calmly as he could muster under the circumstance.

"Perhaps it's not in my place anymore but I thought maybe you could use a listening ear…I mean with work." She added quickly before handing him his beer.

He bit back his disappointment and did as she bid him.

The instant he opened his mouth, the words poured out like a flood on their own. Talking about his cases was so much easier to do than talking about important things, such as his feelings. He opened up to her, something that had come to him quite fluidly at the loft once they stopped dancing around each other nervously. He began from the top, at the discovered of the body of an unknown woman first thing Monday morning. The killer had sawn off the victim's head, as well as her hands. They were missing from the scene. The woman had no ID, no cell phone or anything that would help in her identification. Even though they'd searched the missing persons database, they'd come up with nothing. Adalind listened attentively, only asking her questions when there was nothing more to say.

He explained that without the woman's ID, the owners and workers' alibis checking out, the case had slammed into a very thick brick wall, which refused to budge. Their list of suspects was non-existent, let alone any viable witnesses. There wasn't even a security camera to make his job of catching the killer easier. The case had grown cold, which he really hated. Nick had always prided himself with his case record, solving a case meant less bad guys hurting more people because he'd put them behind bars. As for his other job, he did his utmost to bring those responsible for such atrocities to justice, the "law" kind and not so much as his ancestors' kind of justice, not unless the situation pushed him to act less a cop and more of a Grimm.

"It's no wonder you haven't slept." She said.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah…. I'm sorry I couldn't be of much help."

"Trust me, you did much more than I expected." He paused, "I really appreciate it," he admitted freely.

Something made him turn to look at the clock in far back wall in the kitchen and he regretted it immediately. It was late, well past midnight. They were both surprised at how quickly the time passed. Reluctantly, he played with his car keys, "Thanks again for tonight," he said as he forced himself to his feet.

"It was my pleasure," she said softly as she lead him towards the front door and out onto the porch.

Under the soft moon light, he dared to take one last look into her big, cerulean eyes, beautiful. Regretfully, he bid her a dreaded goodbye.

"Good night Nick," she sighed.

With heavy footsteps, he walked away into the cold, dark and lonely night.

*/*/*

Note:

I have an idea about this where this story is headed, how well I execute it, remains to be seen. Tell me all your thoughts.