Chapter 14: Exactly The Wrong Thing, At Exactly The Wrong Time

The healing of Hansel and Gretel was pretty weird to watch. Maybe it was because, nowadays, it's rare for people to be so close that when they break apart you can actually see their mending, their fusing back together.

That deeply moving scene between them at Monroe's front door had only been the tip of the iceberg.

Hours later, Hansel still hadn't let go of his sister's hand. They sat together on the couch, staring lazily at nothing in particular, his head on her shoulder and her head rested on top of his. They clung to each other like they'd been through a shipwreck. Like they'd been left alone by their parents, not years ago when they were little kids, but today. There was no sound to be heard aside from their breathing (almost in sync) and occasional soft moans. Not the kind that followed nightmares; the kind that only comes out of a creature -of any kind, Wesen or otherwise- that's had such a huge relief there is just no other way to express it.

"Should we say something?" Monroe whispered to Rosalee, at a bit of a loss. "Offer them something to eat?" Hansel in particular looked like he could use a pick me up. "Or drink, maybe?"

"No." Rosalee shook her head. "I think we should just leave them alone. Whatever they're going through right now, they obviously need it."

"What do you think Nick said to him? To make him come back out of nowhere like this?"

Rosalee shrugged. "I don't know." Her eyes drifted to the still-as-statues siblings on the couch. "But whatever it was, it worked."

The whispering, the actual words forming complete sentences, didn't start until several hours later. The sun was already up and peeking in yellow-orange rays through the curtains by the time Hansel asked Gretel how she'd been holding up without him.

"I've been okay," she whispered.

"I'm really glad you found Nick. This way, at least you had someone who was there for you when..." He swallowed, like it pained him. "When I couldn't be."

Gretel sighed.

"I'm really sorry."

"I know. You keep telling me."

"Just let me get this out, Sis." She felt the retraction of his smile. "I'm really sorry for what I said to you, back at the hospital."

"You didn't mean it."

"That's what scares me," Hansel whispered. "I'm worried some part of me did." He squeezed her hand. "That deep down I'm more of a monster than you could ever be."

"It's not true, Hansel." Gretel kissed his hairline, quickly and roughly. To anyone who didn't know them, it would have looked void of any affection. But, being hardcore Grimms, this was about as gentle as they got with each other. "You're not a monster."

"Did you know I'd come back?"

"I hoped for it, for a long time. Then, when you didn't, I pretended I still had hope. Because I couldn't let myself give up. I still have your insulin needle from the day you went missing."

"The day they took me."

"Was it horrible?"

"More horrible than you can imagine."

"You're not going to tell me what they did to you," Gretel realized. "Are you?"

"Hell, no."

"Why?"

"Why wouldn't you tell me about almost being raped?"

Gretel stiffened. "Nick told you that."

"Yeah." Hansel grimaced. "Don't be mad at him, Gretel. He only did what he had to."

"Hansel..."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

She closed her eyes and inhaled. "I couldn't hurt you like that." She'd known what telling him about those effing bastards would have done to her brother.

"And I can't hurt you by telling you what I've just been through." Hansel bit his lower lip. Releasing it, he added, "I'm sorry, Gretel, but I just can't do that to you."

"I'll think the worst," she warned him.

"You do that, then." Hansel sighed.

Gretel rolled her eyes. "I'm just glad you're back."

"Me too, Sis." He closed his eyes. "Me too."

Nick was cutting out a slice of a big lasagna Juliette had made for dinner when he heard someone at the door.

"Here." Juliette's fingers wrapped around the knife, taking it from him. "I'll take care of that. Why don't you go see who's on the porch?"

"Thanks." Nick shook his head distractedly. His mind was still on Gretel and Hansel, much as he tried to assure himself everything was okay between them now, that he'd brought Hansel back for good.

Gretel stood in the doorway, one foot inside. She'd already opened the door with her key. Which she'd still kept, even after moving into Monroe's spare attic room. Nick hadn't bothered to ask for it back.

"Hey." Nick was surprised by how glad he felt to see her here. Even knowing she most likely wasn't here to stay, it was like seeing a long lost family member come home. It just felt right, somehow. Maybe it shouldn't have, but it did.

Gretel swallowed. She took a step towards him and slapped him hard across the mouth. "That," she said slowly, "was for what you told Hansel." Then, unexpectedly, she hugged him, her arms locking around the back of his neck.

"What's this for?" he murmured, his jaw still aching from the force of the slap even as he registered being hugged.

"For what you told Hansel." He thought he heard her fighting back a sniffle. "Thank you. Thank you for bringing him back to me."

"You're welcome, Gretel." Realizing she apparently wasn't ready to let go of him just yet, Nick held onto her, letting her cling to him like she was his sister instead of Hansel's.

However, to Juliette, who came out of the kitchen to see what all the noise was about (two Grimms exchanging blows and thank yous are incapable of being quiet), there was nothing brotherly about it.

There it was again. That twinge of jealousy Juliette kept thinking (or hoping) she was over but never really was. The way they related to each other, on a level Juliette would never fully understand, the look on their faces when they were together like this, even the positions of their bodies, so relaxed and trusting and yet still somehow on guard the way Grimms always have to be, secretly frustrated her.

She could keep trying to tell herself that it wasn't any different from if this were Hansel or Monroe hugging Nick right now.

Only it didn't matter. Not really.

Because it wasn't that she didn't trust Nick, or that she hated Gretel. It ran deeper than that. In ran into the illogical conclusion that, even as he was being a hundred and ten percent loyal to her, Nick was falling -whether he knew and accepted it or not- in love with his new friend. Juliette even suspected Gretel was already in love with him. How could she not be? He'd been there for her -in a way she guessed no guy ever really had- and now he'd given her back her brother. That look on her face, so contented in Nick's embrace, was more than just grateful.

Juliette couldn't prove it; she doubted she could even make Nick believe it if she voiced what she now knew. But she did know.

She knew, one way or another, Gretel had feelings for her boyfriend.

Which meant there was no easy way out of this for all three of them. One of them -her, Nick, or Gretel- was going to end up with a broken heart.

And, it might have been selfish, but after all she'd gone through -already almost having lost Nick once before- she couldn't stand the thought of it being her. She and Nick were happy. For the first time in a long, long while, they were truly and completely happy. They didn't need this. They'd never asked for Gretel to come charging into their lives, complicating what was already too complicated. It wasn't fair.

Nick and Gretel finally let go of one another.

Watching them as they -a little awkwardly but not without big, dopey grins on their faces- said goodbye and Gretel turned to leave, probably back to Monroe's, where her brother would undoubtedly still be waiting to continue their ongoing Grimm Twins reunion, Juliette decided she had to stop this. She had to talk to Nick and make him understand where this thing with Gretel was really headed. She had to apologize for feeling this way, but also make it perfectly clear that she couldn't take this anymore. Yes, Gretel meant a lot to him; it broke Juliette's heart to think of how bad giving up such a close friend was going to tear Nick up inside. She was just hoping she meant more. That he loved her enough to let Gretel go before things got worse.

Besides, he still had Monroe and Rosalee. It wasn't the same thing, but at least he would still have people he could rely on, even if they weren't Grimms like Gretel and her brother.

And Hansel was better now, so technically Nick didn't need to be there for Gretel anymore. She wasn't all alone. Anything else he wanted to do for her now was just that: a want. Not a need. Juliette had been patient all this time, knowing there was nothing else to be done. Gretel had needed their help. Now she didn't. She'd be all right. It was time to cut the ties. Time for things to go, if not back to normal, than at least close to it. At least back to the way things were before that first day she saw Nick sitting on a bench holding Gretel's hand.

"Nick?"

He turned to face her, still smiling like a lovestruck schoolboy.

Juliette gnawed nervously on the inside of her cheek. "We need to talk."

"Juliette, how long are you going to stay mad at me?" Nick asked.

She had her back to him, standing at the coffee maker, watching the pot fill up.

"Geez," she snapped, her tone hurt. "I don't know, Nick... Maybe until I can get over the fact that my boyfriend doesn't care about my feelings."

"You know that's not true."

The coffee maker beeped. She poured herself a cup and turned around to face Nick. "I told you last night how I feel about Gretel still hanging around now that she doesn't need our help anymore, and you completely blew me off!"

"That's not true," Nick insisted. "First off, I didn't blow you off. Second, what makes you think Gretel doesn't need our help anymore?"

"She has her brother back," Juliette pointed out. "He can look after her."

"Honey, Hansel remembers her now, but that doesn't mean he's all better." Nick shook his head. "The man's been through hell. Right now, he can barely look after himself, let alone another person. The only progress we've made is that he no longer wants to kill his sister."

"I don't know about you, but I would call that a major breakthrough," Juliette grumbled.

"So would I." Nick shrugged. "But that doesn't mean I'd let the guy operate heavy machinery or take my car anywhere. If you get what I mean."

"You let Gretel drive the car."

"Yeah, so?" He looked confused. "You told me you were fine with that."

"I was. When this was a temporary arrangement." Juliette put her cup down and folded her arms across her chest. "But you obviously don't want her to go. And for some reason you like her a lot better than her brother."

"Juliette, no, I see where you're going with this." Nick took a step towards her. "You have to believe I would never do that to you. Gretel is a really good friend. And I trust her not to drive my car to Vegas and bring it back full of glitter and showgirls. Just because I don't have the same confidence in Hansel, doesn't mean I'm treating her special, or that I care more about her than you."

"No, you just want to keep spending all of your time with her."

"What are you talking about?"

"Like when you take her with you to the trailer, or when you go off in the woods alone and fight each other..." Juliette's face clenched. "Nick, it's disgusting. I've tried to be supportive of you, but I'm not okay with how close you guys are."

"It's disgusting that we fight?" Nick blinked at her. "And what do you mean close? We're friends."

"I know, that's what you keep telling me!"

"It's the truth."

"She's falling in love with you, you know," Juliette told him. "You probably don't believe it..." She stared at her hopeless boyfriend's unmoving face. "It's still the truth."

That was when Nick made his mistake. This might have been a good time to keep quiet, to keep being rational and appealing to Juliette's sense of reason and justice. If he had, he might have won in the end, Juliette at least somewhat reassured.

Instead, he said exactly the wrong thing.

He said, "I know."

Juliette's eyes widened. "What?"

"Juliette, it's not..."

"Nick..." Her voice got very tense very quickly. "How do you know? Did she tell you?"

He shook his head. "No. I just...I figured it out when..." When he'd kissed her that one time.

"When what?"

"This is crazy," Nick said. "She has a crush on me, for God's sake. She has some feelings for me. Probably because I'm the first person who's ever stuck by her that she didn't share a womb with. That's the only reason she likes me in that way, and she'd never act on that."

"Why are you avoiding my question?"

"I'm not." He was. Not because he really had anything to hide -it wasn't like anything actually had happened- but he still knew that Juliette would be hurt if she knew he'd kissed Gretel. Regardless of the circumstances.

"Did something happen between you two?"

"No."

They were suddenly interrupted by the sound of shuffling feet. Their heads whipped around, only to see a disheveled Ariel Eberhart in a bathrobe and slippers, helping herself to the coffee.

"Uh, excuse me?" Nick snapped, glaring at her.

"What?" Juliette choked out, momentarily distracted from her argument with Nick. "How the hell did you get in here?"

"Oh, don't worry about it." She smiled coyly and shrugged like they were the best of friends and her sudden appearance in their kitchen was not a big deal. "Hansel let me in."

"When did he get back here?" Juliette's voice was getting dangerously shrill.

"Wasn't he with Gretel?" Nick asked.

"Hmm, not last night." Her smile deepened into a smirk. "At least not all of it."

Speak of the devil. Hansel appeared, also wearing a bathrobe (which, Nick noticed, looked suspiciously like one of his).

"Oh my God," Juliette growled.

Nick fought the urge to smack Hansel upside the head. This wasn't exactly helping his case that having Hansel and Gretel stick around longer was a good idea...

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," Hansel said dryly, arching an eyebrow at Juliette and nudging Ariel aside so he could get at what was left of the coffee.

"Okay, I don't even want to know where she's been since Gretel got stabbed, or why she thinks it's all right to just make herself at home here, Hansel or no Hansel," Juliette glared at Ariel, then let her eyes drift back to Nick. "But we're in the middle of a discussion here, and-"

"Uh-oh," Hansel commented jokingly, pulling out a chair and sitting down, "sounds like mom and dad are fighting again."

"Don't you just hate when they do that?" giggled Ariel.

"Will both of you shut up and get out of my kitchen?" Juliette snapped.

"Well, that's awfully rude," Ariel said, putting her cup in the sink.

"Some people just don't know how they come off to others," Hansel agreed.

"Just get out of here already!" Nick barked.

"Okay, okay." Ariel pouted, turning to leave.

In all the mounting tension as Nick and Juliette resumed their disagreement, they didn't even notice Hansel was still there (only Ariel had actually left, and that was just into the next room) sipping away at his pilfered coffee.

"Nick, I'm going to ask you again," Juliette said. "Is there something -anything- going on between you and Gretel?"

"Better not be," Hansel muttered into his mug.

Maybe this was why Grimms didn't hold extended family reunions. Nick shot Hansel a dirty look over his shoulder. Why the hell was Gretel's mentally whacked twin still in the kitchen?

Hansel pulled his lips away from the rim and took a long swallow, setting the remainder of the coffee down. "I just don't want to have to kill you, especially considering how hospitable you've been."

Juliette pointed at the opening between the kitchen and the dinning room emphatically. "Get. Out!"

"See, remember what I just said about being hospitable?" Hansel pointed out.

"Out!" shrieked Juliette.

"Fine, I can tell when I'm not wanted." Hansel sauntered out like he was on a runway.

"Finally," Juliette hissed under her breath.

"You realize he just stole our mug?" Nick said.

"Nick, don't change the subject."

"Juliette, I'm telling you, nothing happened."

"I want to believe you," she said, her tone going quiet. "You have no idea how much... But I know you, Nick. And, while I know you would never want to hurt me... You look like you're holding in guilt. And it could be over something totally different, but it's still something you're keeping from me." She bit her lower lip. "We promised no more secrets, and you still aren't telling me everything. You didn't tell me about Ariel still being alive, even though you knew all that time... Now there's something else, something you're not telling me. Call me crazy, but my gut is screaming that it's something to do with Gretel."

"Juliette..."

"Don't try and sweep it under the rug," she warned him. "If you aren't going to be completely honest with me, I'm just going to assume the worst. No matter how hard it is to think of you like that. To think you're capable of hurting me."

Nick closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. "We kissed, once. It didn't mean anything. That's all that's ever happened. I'm not lying when I say we're just friends."

Juliette's face went very white very fast. "She kissed you?"

"No." He wasn't about to let her get mad at Gretel for his screw up. "I kissed her."

"Oh, God." Juliette brushed past him and started for the door.

"It's not what you think," Nick protested. "Juliette, I can explain!"

"I'm sure you can," she said insincerely. "But I have to go to work."

He followed her out of the kitchen, chasing after her, only to have the front door slam shut in his face.