Notes:

I'm not sure about this chapter. I hope you enjoy it better that I did writing it.

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Nick never truly understood the toll his work took on his personal life, how much it infringed upon his life until Adalind and Kelly moved out. He was a cop and it was expected of him to spend long hours away from home, doubly so now that he was also a Grimm. He did it when he was with Juliette and though she'd never complained, it had clearly affected her, explaining how things between them had imploded in so great a fashion.

He also did it with Adalind when they still shared the loft together. She too never complained but he always got the sense that she, unlike Juliette, understood that it was his duty. Adalind always understood him in ways he didn't expect, a realisation that had slowly worked its way around his heart, burrowing deep like the roots of a white oak, hundreds of years old. Now that he lived alone, it seared him being away from home as often as his job took him away because it also meant time taken away from his son.

That morning, Adalind was on her way to the loft before heading into the office. Normally she dropped Kelly off the night before so father and son could have more time together but his job got in the way.

He just stepped out of the shower when he heard the massive garage door roll shut. A peculiar feeling washed over him at the thought of the three of them together again in the home they had shared during the most adverse times of their lives. He always got pensive about their situation and no passage of time had lessened the stone of regret weighing down his heart.

He heard the familiar ding of the elevator as he stepped out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, not exactly how he wished to greet her but then again, nothing she hadn't seen before. They came face to face and for a moment both stood unable move, Nick, no doubt transfixed by her beauty.

"Hi," he said.

"Sorry, I'm a little early; I knew you'd be up after last night…." She apologised.

Nick gave her a fleeting, blink and you'll miss it uptick at the corner of his lips.

"Hey Buddy," Nick turned his attention to his son, who was equally glad to see his father. "Give me one second to get dressed," said Nick, his expression, expectantly returning to Adalind. He then turned to what used to be their bedroom and closed the massive barn doors behind him but he could still make her out through the glass windows. Adalind was still on her feet, with Kelly still attached to her hip, uncertain of what to do next. He could have stood there watching her but he realised how weird that was and carried on getting dressed, hoping she wasn't in a rush. Perhaps they could have breakfast together, seeing how they've already had dinner. It made perfect sense, he thought.

Once finished, Nick stepped out and saw just from her awkward posture, Adalind was already one foot out the door. Kelly sat happily on the thick carpet surrounded with his favourite toys, the two grown-ups forgotten.

"Thank you…for bringing him over." He said.

"Don't mention it. How's work?" she said, making small talk, something they both sucked at but to him, she may as well spouted poetry from the way Nick looked at her.

"Busy." He said, hating his inability to fill the air with more than one syllable words and work was honestly the last thing he wanted to discuss.

A long awkward moment padded between them before she spoke up. "I have to go." She said.

No. "Stay!" he exclaimed. "I mean you're welcome to stay, for breakfast. It's the least I can do…for dinner…the other night." The words clumsily rolled off his tongue but before she could answer, his phone rang. He ignored it. However, she couldn't.

"Aren't you going to get that? It could be important." She asked.

"They'll call back." The smart device just kept ringing and ringing without missing a beat.

With frustration, Nick pulled it out from his back pocket and cursed under his breath when he saw Hank's name on the screen.

"Yeah?" he said sternly into the receiver and cursed some more after he hung up.

"Let me guess, there's another body?" she joked and her mood dropped when she realised the accuracy of her words. "I'm sorry."

His phone buzzed as a text came in, "I really have to go." he was unimpressed with the turn of events.

"Go, I understand. We'll be fine. Go be someone's hero. I can lock up when we leave."

Her words pained him. Nothing about their current situation felt right; as if the closer he tried to get to her, something would always push them further apart.

First, it was the return of her abilities, he wished he knew then what he knew now. For days, maybe weeks, Nick had struggled, piecing together those last moments in his waking dreams. It had taken him longer than he liked but he'd finally understood what Rosalee had been telling him all this time, what had driven her to do what she did; the fear of what he would do.

All that time together at the loft was a sort of bubble, despite still being very much a Grimm, the stuff of nightmares for all wesenkind yet Adalind had looked past it all, including his part in causing her so much pain, until that night when she woged. Now that he had her back at their loft, he wanted to tell her it didn't mattered what she was, any more than it had mattered to her what he was, that he would never hurt her. That they could both look past each other's nature to the people they were inside but instead, he got into his rusted metal box on his way to work, ruing yet another missed opportunity.

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Nick entered the cordoned crime scene on SE, Milwaukie Ave. "What have we got?" He called out to Hank as he slipped on his latex gloves.

"Male, over 6ft by the looks of it."

"Huh? Aah," said Nick upon seeing the body for himself.

It was another decapitation, "The head and hands are also missing, like the first," added his partner.

"Damn it! This was supposed to be my day off." He said gruffly.

"Dude, I had to leave this fine, fine lady's bed for this. I mean seriously, can't these killers consider taking the rest of eternity off so some of us can enjoy our lives."

It was a pattern; one Nick didn't want to see repeated. It meant they had a possible serial killer on their hands or it was a pretty close coincident.

For all the similarities, there was one difference. There wasn't a single drop of blood anywhere, which meant they were also on the hunt for the first crime scene and the clock was ticking.

"This is going to be a very, very long day," Nick scowled.

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At the precinct, Nick was neck deep in the two case files, hoping the one would shed more light on the other. He shared his theory with Hank of the first crime scene being stage like the second.

"But how would you explain the blood, the spatter? The place looked like a snuff film with the amount of blood we saw."

"Maybe the killer wants to throw us off their scent. I can't explain that, any more than I can the conspicuously bloodless scene at the antique shop. So I asked Forensic to have a relook at the first scene, maybe there's something we missed."

"Yeah, that is weird. I hate this so much right now." Hank said, rubbing his eyes raw of sleep. "I know you missed your time with Kelly. Because this new body was similar to our first vic, this fell on our lap instead of Barker and Sinclair," his partner commiserated with him.

They'd managed to identify the first victim as Jennifer O'Dair who'd recently moved from Boston to Portland on a job opportunity at the beginning of the year. She was a single child of an elderly couple who didn't know she'd been missing at all until a friend filed a missing's person report one whole week after her death.

"Let's just get this guy before any more bodies show up."

Nick's cell phone started ringing.

"It's Monroe." He told Hank. "Hey, what's up?"

"Hi, I was in the neighbourhood and I got the strangest call from my uncle Felix. He's an antiquarian in Leipzig."

"Okay…." said Nick, not sure he was supposed to care and his mind returning to the more pressing papers in front of him."

"Look it's better if I show you, I'm coming up."

"You're here?"

"…In the elevator on my way up. Adalind told Rosalee, who then told me where to find you."

Nick heard the elevator door open and out came his friend, all jittery, like a live wire.

"Nick, Nick boy have I got some news for you. Hello Hank." he tipped his head towards the other detective sitting across from Nick.

"Monroe."

"Like I said, my uncle Felix called when I was attending to a new client in the Pearl District. At first, I thought someone had died but I was wrong then he says to me, 'Your mother told me that you have a friend…that is a Grimm. That is the reason why I'm calling you.' And I'm thinking, man my mom is a big talker—"

"And I'm imagining a point to all of this…." Nick cut in impatiently.

"Right! Onkle Felix then says to me, 'I have something that your friend would be very interested in,' He emailed me some photos and man you've got to see this." Monroe pulled out his cell phone and held it in front of Nick."

Nick came to attention immediately, "This looks like stuff from my books."

"I know. It's really amazing stuff. He said he was doing an appraisal. He's called on a lot to appraise old books or book collections. He works for museums and collectors all over Europe, and I have to tell you, these books look really old. When it comes to the printed page before 1900, he is an aficionado supreme. In fact, most of the books and maps I have in my collection came from him. Some of these Wesen in these pages, I don't think I've ever even heard of them."

"Me neither," admitted Nick. "He knew what the books were?" He handed the phone to Hank so he too could see what the content with his own eyes.

"He did. Look, he's a smart book dealer. He knows the value of these books is obviously gonna be different for a Grimm than it'd be for someone who thinks they're just, you know, fairy tales."

"Did your uncle know a Grimm?"

"Not that I know of, but look, having a relationship with a Grimm is not exactly something you want to talk about in public, especially not in the old country."

"Do you trust him?"

"You mean, do I think this stuff is real? Hell yeah, it's real. Onkle Felix wouldn't touch a forgery."

"Did he say how much he wants?"

"No, I think he wants to find out if you're interested first. Look, I'm not trying to pressure you. I'm just saying this stuff looks amazing. Especially after all you lost when the trailer was burned."

"Exactly," interjected Hank.

"So if you're interested…" continued Monroe.

"Oh, I'm interested."

Hank got a call from his "lady" friend, "Fellas, I hate to love and leave you but I'm out to lunch. Don't miss me too much." He flicked his jacket from the back of his chair and said goodbye.

They called Monroe's uncle before it got too late in Germany. Nick felt buoyant for the first time in a long while. Getting a hold of these books would go a long way to salve the gaping wound Juliette inflicted when she burnt his Aunt Marie's trailer, nearly destroying his entire family's heritage. According to Monroe's uncle, the books had belonged to a Josef Nebosja who had died six months prior, at a ripe old age of ninety-six. He lived alone for a long time, had no will or relatives. The court wanted everything of his sold as quickly as possible for taxes and they almost did until Felix Dietrich came upon the books through an associate of his.

As quickly as Nick's spirits lifted, they plummeted to the depths below at hearing the price tag for the whole lot. As much as Nick wanted the books, he couldn't come up with the $100,000 in as short a time as Felix insisted.

"I don't have that kind of cash lying around. Even if I sold that vacant land up north, and dipped into my savings, I'd only come up with half of what your uncle is asking. I need more time."

"Yeah, I'm also a little cash strapped at the moment, I couldn't help even if I wanted to but we have to get those books Nick. What if they end up destroyed, which is what'll happen if they fall into certain Wesen hands."

Nick grunted with acute disappointment.

"What…what if we got Adalind to spot you the rest?"

"No," Nick shut the idea down before it could form root.

"Why not? She's good for it with her new-old job and just think of it as an investment to Kelly's Grimm future. He's going to need what's in those books someday, I'm certain she'd be willing to help us."

Monroe really had no tact sometimes, Nick thought and he gave his friend a look that said, "We're not bringing her into this."

"It was just a suggestion and I am sure she'd want to help—"

"I said no."

"'No' to someone helping us out or just 'no' to that someone being Adalind?"

Nick twisted slightly; Monroe was much more perceptive than he looked. "Monroe, just drop it."

"Buddy, relax, you know I'm on your side, always, no matter what you decide."

Nick suspected they had stopped talking about the pricy Grimm books and had moved into Monroe's new favourite topic, Nick's love life.

This was the difference between Nick's friends. While he couldn't fully open up to Hank, he certainly did with Monroe but sometimes he questioned the wisdom of that stance due to his friend sometimes lacking a filter.

Monroe was a wesen, so there was a level of understanding that came with that friendship. Unsolicited, a thought crossed his mind, comparing his relationships with Juliette and Adalind to his friendship with both Hank and Monroe. It should not have surprised him, how secrecy had marred his life with Juliette and almost did his friendship in with Hank and by comparison to the openness of the latter. At the very least he could admit to himself, there was something freeing about his time with Adalind, in the same way he knew Monroe never judged him or weighed him down with his own expectations.

With those two, Nick never once felt a need to 'hide' who and what he was to appease them. A chilling thrill went down his spine the more he thought. Perhaps, that explained his difficulty in 'moving on'. His friendship with Monroe was everything Nick knew he could never afford to lose despite their night and day personalities, so why then had he let things get so far out of hand with Adalind when deep inside he knew he could not be without her?

In the beginning, he would have denied it but the truth was that since the day she moved out of the loft, Nick's eyes always sought her face whenever they were in the same room together. It was easier to believe a lie. That he was looking for the Biest within, to see if the 'old' Adalind had returned, but who was the old Adalind, her mother's failed protégé? Renard's accomplice or was she his patsy? Was she the vengeful woman or the woman who had her own dreams and for want of acceptance allowed other to use her for their gain? He'd seen her at her absolute worst but he'd also seen at her absolute best causing his body to react unexpectedly, despite his earlier concerted efforts not to. The more he looked, the more he got lost in her deep blue eyes, now more than ever.

Monroe had even cornered him one afternoon, after Adalind's very short visit to the shop, hardly a month after their separation.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean you and Adalind. I'm not claiming to be an expert but even I can see what you simply refuse to acknowledge, with you mooning over her the way you did like a minute ago."

"Pfft, you don't know what you're talking about."

"I mean I could get into the biology side of things but I don't want to embarrass you and bring up the lovely breakfast I made for me and my wife this morning; I just don't get why you're set on torturing yourself by denying the obvious. Boy likes girl, or more specifically, Grimm likes Hexenbiest and honestly, there's no shame in that. If we can be friends, who says you can't fall in love with a Biest? And I thought I was the stubborn one."

He couldn't deny it but it wasn't the same as actually saying the words himself.

Admitting to the possibility of love meant admitting to so much more than that, like the fact that every thought he had, every move he made, outside of his work, had circled round to her and it had scared the living daylights out of him. It's as though she'd infused her essence with his. It was impossible to tell where he began and she ended, but what would be the point of bringing that up when if she no longer felt the same? Adalind seemed to go out her way to not to not want to be in the same room as him except when it concerned their son. His friend had it all wrong. He should have stopped her from leaving him.

"If I were you, I'd remove whatever stick was stuck up my wahzoo and take my chance before someone else cuts in line and rides off into the sunset with the woman I love, just my 2c." That had given Nick a start, the idea of another man by her side made his blood run ice cold and the thought of that man raising his son just about made him homicidal. "It would never happen, I am hers and she is mine," he'd said to himself.

Nick was so wound up tightly he was surprised he had not yet popped a vein at the mention of her name. His life had fallen apart around him, he felt his focus at work slipping and if Hank was right, he'd lost even the control of his temper and that set him on dangerous ground. His Captain, the half Zauberbiest, Royal Prince, breathed down his neck for results but Nick suspected Sean Renard secretly took sick pleasure in Nick's life appearing in shambles. For years, the Captain had played both sides, ingratiating himself into Nick's life, using Adalind and then absolving himself of all the trouble he'd rained over Nick and dumping everything on Adalind's doorstep. For years, Nick had allowed it until the scales finally fell from his eyes and he could see the Captain for what he was, a man without honour…a snake in the grass.

"What about…?" As if he'd sensed Nick's thoughts, Monroe tilted his head towards his Captain's office.

"Absolutely not!" he shouted, he felt his blood begin to boil but reigned his emotions back in. "That man's pocket is the last place I want to be in. He's already in too deep in my business as it is." Nick shot back stiffly. Yes, he was desperate for the books but not that desperate to get into bad with that two-faced snake, pun definitely intended.

"Sorry, bad joke," apologised Monroe. "I have to go; I'm meeting my mom for our annual scheduled lunch. Nick, I'll talk to my uncle again and see if I can't get him to lower the amount, at the very least, to hold off selling the books to anyone else until we can come up with something." He said and he got up from his chair.

"I'll appreciate it," said Nick.

Then something on Nick's desk made Monroe stop in his tracks, "Hey, someone killed Sweet Robin?" Monroe picked up one of the crime photos for closer inspection.

"…Sweet who?"

"Robin Jaeger, everyone who's everyone knows Sweet Robin."

"Not this guy, I don't."

"Yeah, sorry. Sometimes I forget you're not wesen, specifically Blutbad. I recognised the tattoo, or at least what's left of it."

While Nick could only make out what looked like a tail of an animal of some kind he couldn't make neither heads nor tails of the triangular blob in its centre.

"It's the big bad wolf circling little red riding hood, that's her hood, you can't tell because it's black, like the Forest, as he liked to brag to anyone who would listen." Monroe had said.

"So why do you call him sweet Robin?"

"Because he has—had a sweet tooth for…you know…"

Nick knew.

"Why am I only finding out about this guy now, if he's what you say he is? How many people has he…you know…?"

"Oh, that's because Robin was smart, at least that's what he liked to tell himself, he never shat where he slept. It was his motto. He rarely hunted in Portland, and more so when you came along. He liked crossing the border north. He said those woods were the best for finding 'game.' As to how many he's…you know, I can't say other that it was a lot, according to some people in the know."

"I am going to need all of their names and addresses. Did he have any enemies?"

"Boy did he ever, the list is as long as the telephone book. I mean, you've seen the size of him right? There aren't a lot of people I look up to at full height and he's one of them. Sweet Robin always talked a big game and actually had the stones to back it up, pissing people wherever he went and not just picking on Kehrseite alone. Torture was his favourite past time, if he caught you looking at him funny. I'm not surprised someone finally dished up a little payback."

"Great!" Nick said unenthusiastically. "I thought that maybe this was related to another one of my cases but it's possible it's completely unrelated."

"How so?"

Nick pointed out the differences between the two cases, "It's possible his killer wanted to exact revenge, torture him until he died. It's would explain why all the blood was drained from the body, the complete opposite of the first victim. It's possible the second killer mimicked the first in cutting off Jaeger's head and hands; for one thing, it wasn't done as cleanly as the first. Whoever killed Jaeger wanted to inflict as much pain as possible before his end. His death was likely slow, excruciatingly so. Ms O'Dair couldn't have suffered much at all with how swiftly the blow came." He assumed but without her severed head to confirm his theory, he couldn't be 100% certain.

Monroe left soon after, unable to put off spending time with his mother any longer, leaving Nick to mull over both cases. He was looking at two possible killers or a serial killer and he didn't like either one of those option one bit. Instead of having lunch, he followed the lead and headed out to question potential witness, someone who could fill in the blanks leading up to Sweet Robin's untimely demise. Nick figured the sooner he collected more evidence, the sooner he'd go home, mistakenly assuming Adalind waited for him at their loft. It dawned on him a second later that they wouldn't be there, waiting for him as before.

He was despondent until something inside him shifted. He'd woke up that morning thinking the handful of books to survive Juliette's raging inferno was all he had left of his heritage but fate had intervened and suddenly there was hope. He'd faced the probability of his case going cold and fast had it not been for Monroe's timely visit. Nick wasn't a believer in anything outside of what he could do with his own strength but even he couldn't deny that things had turned a corner where his books and his case were concerned so why could the same not apply to whatever existed between him and Adalind? Perhaps he was the one that had it all wrong, that fate wasn't keeping them apart, only his stubbornness and wounded pride.

His Grimm had not stifled her burgeoning feelings for him and it was clear that her Hexenbiest hadn't prevented him falling for the petite but enticing blond. With clarity he hadn't had in what seemed like an eternity, Nick came to a decision to assume back control of his life. He knew exactly what he wanted, to get his family back and was determined to get it.

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