They cuddled in bed for a little while before the needs of nature necessitated their rousting. Jen used magic to clean herself up a bit and, on brief second thought, did the same to Nick's bed. They'd not made too much of a mess, but it would be nice to go to sleep later in clean sheets. She found her knickers and donned Nick's discarded black shirt to cover herself. It took a minute of magic to get her wings to fit properly, but just like one would pull and flip long hair out of the way of clothes, her wings found a way.

He was in the bathroom, and she took the time alone in his room to look around. She'd been too distracted to do so earlier when they'd arrived up here. It was a plain sort of room, all in all. It seemed to match what she knew of Nick. Clean and orderly and practical. Not a lot of frills or ostentatious things. The furniture was all wood with very simple lines. She could not quite tell if he had made it or not, but judging on the beautiful table downstairs, he'd not made the dresser and bedframe himself. The bedsheets were a light gray stripe and the duvet was a darker gray. Very plain. Not so plain as to be completely boring. He'd obviously made an effort. But it was simple.

The bathroom door opened and Nick came out, making an amused little sound. Jen turned to him and smiled, asking, "What?"

"I've never seen you wear black before," he said.

He was referring to his shirt that she wore. Jen realized that she might not have ever worn black before. It was not a color anyone ever wore in the fairy realm. They all tended to go for light, earthy, floral tones. "Is it alright?" she asked him.

Nick nodded. He wasn't sure why he'd even said anything, actually. She looked very good in his shirt. But then again, Jennifer looked good in anything. She looked even better in nothing. He noticed her wings out behind her so beautifully and frowned in confusion. "How'd you make that work?" he asked, pointing.

Jen turned around so he could see. There were small slits in the back of his shirt for where her wings connected to her back. Seemed to small for her to fit the wings through those tiny spaces, but obviously she'd managed somehow.

"I guess you can patch up the shirt after?"

"It'll go back to how it was when I take it off. Would you like me to?" she asked.

Sometimes all this mess of magic was overwhelming for Nick. He wasn't the kind of person to have his head in the clouds. He wasn't religious, he wasn't one to believe in the power of the universe or anything like that. But he did not find himself balking at anything about Jennifer and her fairy magic. He wasn't quite sure why. Probably because he wasn't a person with strong prejudices. He saw the proof of magic, he had been presented with it right in front of his face and in his own two hands. There was no reason to not believe. That must have been it. No reason to fight against it. So he just accepted it. "No, you're fine. I like you in my shirt," he told her.

Jen smiled again. "Good. Me too."

He pulled on a jumper and some jeans before taking her hand. "Come on, let me make you some dinner."

They made dinner together. Nick had a box of pasta and a jar of sauce and some fresh asparagus that needed cooking before it went bad. Jennifer was fascinated by the stove. Fairies, he learned, cooked things with an open flame that they could conjure themselves and keep contained without burning anything other than what was intended to be cooked. "It takes a lot of focus and concentration to keep from having some terrible accident. That's what happened to Emma. You remember my friend Matt? His children, Joey and Kayla? Emma was their mother. Matt had taken the children to see his parents in another part of the realm to give Emma a bit of a break. They were both barely past infancy, only a year apart, and she was so tired. She tried to make a fire and…well, when Matt got back, there was nothing left."

Nick was rather horrified by that. He was happy to have a stove. He showed Jen how the ignitor and gas worked, how putting the pot of water on top would lead it to boil and the pasta would cook in the boiling water. In a pan on another burner, he sautéed the asparagus tips that Jen had cut for him. She was quite skilled with a chef's knife. He imagined that fairies had a lot of occasion to use knives for various things. Perhaps. Maybe he'd ask her later.

When the asparagus was cooked and the sauce was added to it to heat up and then pour over the penne, the two of them sat at his beautiful wood dining table. Nick wished he had some wine in the house to serve with dinner, but he didn't usually keep wine in the house just for himself, and he'd not been expecting company.

As they ate, Jen asked Nick more about his job, about the cases he'd been working. He described the most recent case to her, the swingers and the sordid affairs they'd gotten themselves involved with. The concept of trading partners did not seem to faze Jennifer at all, but she did get a bit stuck on marriage. Apparently fairies did not get married. There was no ceremony or official commitment between people who loved each other in the fairy realm. They just decided to stay together. And if they decided to move on, they did. That sounded like a rather good system to Nick's mind. Labels and the stranglehold of commitment had never appealed to him. He'd never really wanted to get married or have a family. He did alright dating in the past, finding a woman to spend time with when he wanted to. Falling in love and all that was never something he'd looked for since he was in school and went mad for his first girlfriend who broke his heart when she dumped him for a loud class clown from a rich family who was practically the opposite of Nick Buchanan.

Nick had been about to ask Jennifer if there was any sort of formal arrangement between Queen Bernice and Sir Terry, since she was queen and they seemed very committed and in love, but he was interrupted with the shrill ringing of his mobile in the kitchen where he'd left it.

"I'm sorry, I've got to get that," he apologized, getting up from the table. "It might be a work emergency or something."

Jen had showed up unannounced as soon as he'd gotten home, so she could not blame him for not being prepared to devote all his attention to her. And she didn't really want that anyway. She wanted to be with him, of course, but he had a life and work and friends and such. And Jen didn't want to take him from that. But she did want to help if she could. So since they were done with their very delicious meal, she took it upon herself to clear the plates from the table. She took them into the kitchen and found Nick on the phone, speaking softly.

"Juliette, you can't…no, I know but could you wait…no, alright, I understand." He sighed heavily. "Yeah, alright."

Nick hung up the phone and turned to see Jennifer at the sink, rinsing the dishes.

"Here, I've got a dishwasher," he explained, coming over to assist her.

"A what?"

He showed her how to put the dishes in the machine. "And then I put some soap in and close it up and turn it on and it washes everything for me," he explained.

"You've all done very well without magic," she remarked.

Nick just chuckled and kissed her cheek. Something to feel happy and light again for just a minute.

"Is there something you have to do because of that phone call?" she asked, turning back toward him.

"The journalist I was telling you about, Juliette. That was her. She's going to meet her source. Told me where. Didn't really ask me to go, but she made it pretty clear I could."

"You should," Jen told him.

"But you…"

She shook her head. "Never mind me. I can stay here. Or I can go home. Or I could go with you. Don't worry about me. This is important, Nick. This whole mess has been weighing on you. You've got to do whatever you can to figure it out," she insisted.

Nick knew she was right. He was gladder than he could say that she was right, that she was pushing him to do this. He'd not expected her to be the type to insist he drop everything for her sake, but he was pleased to be proved right on that front. She really was quite perfect. "Would you come with me?" he asked softly.

Jen gave the smallest hint of a smile. "Of course. Just let me get dressed."

Five minutes later, Jen was wearing her pretty dress and one of Nick's zip-up jumpers to keep her warm in the night. Her wings had been made invisible for the foray into the human world outside of his door. Nick had taken that time to go to his home safe and get his gun. Just in case.

They got in the car and drove out to the parking garage in the middle of the city that Juliette had told him about. Nick debated whether or not he should tell Jen what this case was from ten years ago that Juliette Gardiner was poking around in. But this whole thing was strange enough without upsetting her unnecessarily. Once Nick knew more, once he could see this source and see what Juliette was being given, then he could decide what to do about telling Jennifer.

Nick found Juliette's car in the garage easily. It was obnoxiously bright blue and she was still sitting in it when he drove in and parked a ways away in order to be more inconspicuous. "Jen, stay here. I don't know what's going to happen, but I want to make sure you stay safe, alright?"

She nodded gravely, understanding the seriousness of the situation. Nick almost leaned in to kiss her but decided against it. He'd kiss her later. When things were calm and happy.

He got out of the car and readied his gun as he snuck by the wall towards where Juliette was. She'd gotten out of her own car and walked over to an open area. There was a ramp and a few steps up to a landing where the lift bank was. Juliette stood on the ground level, facing towards the railings on the raised platform.

"What do you have for me?" she called out.

Before there was any response, shots rang out. Deafening shots from an unknown direction. Sounds of heavy quick footsteps running away.

Jennifer sat in Nick's car and saw the dark-haired woman fall. She saw Nick run over to her with something in his hand. The sounds were so loud, like the cracking of a mighty tree branch only a hundred times worse. She gasped as her heart leapt and thundered in her chest with panic.

And then everything was silent. And Jen couldn't see anything.