Truth at Last

It's been over a year since they had met again. Juliette had told Nick that she had just needed some air to explain where she had vanished to for over twenty minutes that night and she never told him about Sean, her history with him or the child that they had together. As Nick went to work that first week following the party, she half feared that Sean would bring him into his office and tell him everything. She knew realistically that was unlikely to happen, as neither of them had seen their daughter since the day after she was born as she was carried away by her paternal grandmother who swore upon the life of herself, her son and the life of her grandchild that she would protect her. Juliette didn't see Sean telling Nick, a man he barely that he had once been involved with his girlfriend. Let alone everything else.

While at work recently she just kept getting lost in her thoughts during lull times, when the pets and their owners weren't around. She thought about her daughter. Did she look like her, or like her father? Maybe she got the looks of her grandmother or some other relative. Her daughter is eleven now, and Sean had assured Juliette that the little girl was safe and healthy, growing up to be anything she chose. Juliette remember how she was when she was little. She was never really mean, but she sure liked to anger her parents, throwing tantrums just for the hell of it. She had been a bit rambunctious, nothing growing up didn't fix. She hoped that her daughter was a little calmer, otherwise Sean's mother Elizabeth would have her hands full, granted with her gifts, and Elizabeth could probably handle the tantrums of a child. She had raised Sean to be a proper man after all, even if he was a bit of a stick in the mud publically.

As she's about to close up the clinic for the night, her cell rings from inside her purse. She pulls the phone out and seeing it is not a number she recognizes, she puts the phone back, grabs her purse makes sure all the doors are locked and heads on home. As she pulls up she finds that there is a car in front of her house. It's unfamiliar, dark and new. She looks around the immediate area looking for the owner of the vehicle with no luck in finding anyone, then suddenly she knows that if she goes in her house she is going to have a surprise visitor. She tried, hard, not to grind her teeth in frustration as she stomped up the walk with an expression of promised pain on her face.

She opens the door ready for battle and all that floods out of her when she sees him, just sitting there at the dining room table, looking singularly perplexed. Juliette inhales deeply calming her warring mind and asked, "Sean, what are you doing?"

"Would you believe me if I said I was here to talk to your boyfriend?" She raised an eyebrow at the question, "I didn't think so. My mother called," Juliette breathed in deep again, a knot forming in her throat as what those words could mean. Was Elizabeth just giving her son an update? Was their daughter hurt, sick? She couldn't comprehend what Sean meant by telling her.

"Is she ok?" Juliette asked.

"Mother assured me that she is fine, but Juliette, they found her. My father went looking for another acquaintance with my mother and saw Sarah, after a lot of attempted avoidance, he figured it out andnow is practically demanding that,"

"Is my daughter in danger Sean?" Juliette asks quickly, tossing her bag upon the floor and charging up to Sean. "Are they taking my child away from this SO CALLED SAFE PLACE that you practically forced me to let her go to?"

"She's not in physical danger Juliette, my father may be unkind, but he would never allow harm to come to one of his kin, it's because of him that I am still alive. I never told you everything about them though Juliette, for your sake, you should never have to learn of it but at this point we don't have much of a choice." Sean explained, running a hand through his hair.

"What do you mean then Sean?"

"They will take her Juliette, and yes they'll care for her until she is an adult, but then they will throw her to the wolves. With women, my father's family, they will simply sell off Sarah like a prize mare for breeding and alliances. I will not allow that for her, I could bear the thought of that happening to Sarah, that why she had to be kept away from me and by extension you, because we had been together for so long that it began to get obvious that we were a couple."

"Well then, Sean, my daughter had better be in front of me by the end of the week or by God I will crush your skull with my bare hands. GOT ME! My kid safe in my arms by Friday or I am going to send you back to your father, as a FUCKING CORPSE!" Sean shuddered, the yelling a not so distant memory, and he had no doubt that Juliette would kill him in a second if their daughter was yanked into the type of existence his family wanted for her.

"I understand Juliette, believe me. The moment I got word from my mother, I told her and get Sarah and come here. She'll be much safer with me and my mother around now that my father and his family are aware of her existence." He said, though internally thinking of just how safe the child would be when Nick found out about her. Finding out his girlfriend had been involved with his commanding officer in the past was going to be a tough pill to swallow for the man, but once he got over it and learned of the threat against Juliette's child he would soon protect her with his life. Even if he didn't know the importance of how much protection he could bring to the child.

Speaking of, just as Sean stopped speaking, the sound of the front door opening and closing drew his and Juliette's attention to the front entry way. Sean couldn't hide the grimace on his face when his subordinate walked through the door and looked at him as if he had grown another head. Apparently Juliette had kept everything a secret from her boyfriend and that included her history with Sean. This was going to be an interesting conversation and Sean only hoped that by the end of it Nick wouldn't want to behead him, for one reason or another.

"Uh Captain, what are you doing here?" The man asked and Sean slid his gaze over to Juliette who hid her eyes behind her long curtain of red hair. Sean shook his head, he didn't want to face it either, but his mother would be arriving with Sarah in only a few days and Nick was startled by the revelation, things were likely to turn ugly fast.

"Nick," Juliette began after sharing a long look with her former lover. "I uh, that is, I need to talk to you."

"About what, and what does it have to do with my boss?" Nick asked, a terrible thought coming to mind that she was leaving him, that she somehow knew what he was keeping from her, about his family and himself. The loss of his aunt was still pretty raw and losing Juliette would make that so much worse. He knew he should have told Juliette the truth about himself the moment he found out.

"Nick," Sean cut in, knowing that if he waited Juliette would try to figure out a less troublesome way of telling her long time lover of their history. "Things are a little bit more complicated than you would think. When you brought Juliette to the celebration after you started under my command, I was stunned, as was she…" the blank look on the detective's face was a bad reaction. "Juliette and I have a past Nick," Sean finished his brief quickly.

"You want to tone down the situation Sean, really? You and I both know direct is a hard pill to swallow, I was just trying to figure out how to say it without sounding like a," whore, Juliette thought to herself "less than honest person." She said to the two men instead.

"That's a really bad cover up Juliette," Nick said, a cool tone now in his voice. "Ok so you have a past, I take it that you were in a relationship in past." Juliette nodded calmly. "Ok, but what does that have to do with the here and now. No offence Captain, but I highly doubt would come by our house just to reminisce about old times at," he caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall, "eight thirty in the evening."

"You right Nick, there is more to it." Sean said and with another look quickly thrown at Juliette who looked about ready to vomit as this conversation continued, he hoped he did the right thing. "Nick, Juliette and I, we have a child together."

Silence filled the room as Sean's words entered Nick's already troubled mind. He did not expect this. Not even close. True, finding his Captain in his house sitting down with his girlfriend was a bit of a shock to the system, not to mention hearing that they had a past, and that past must have been a doozy for them to appear as they did right now, but to find out that Juliette has a child, with Sean Renard of all people had Nick fast on his way to swimming downstream with the impression of a fish that he was making.

It felt like an eternity before Nick said anything again. Though it had been quite a few minutes before Nick stopped opening and closing his mouth without uttering a sound, let alone a word or coherent sentence. Juliette was biting on her lip, the response recognized by both men in the room as a nervous habit. The anger that had been oozing from her pours earlier when she had threatened Sean had evaporated the moment she noticed Nick had gotten home. She was looking between both men, hoping against hope that Nick wouldn't launch himself at his boss and try to beat him to death, that would end very badly and not in the detective's favor. At least that's what she thought.

Finally, Nick took a deep breath, clearing the shock out in the long cleansing breath but still not the hurt that had taken hold of his heart after Sean Renard had said those words. His mind clear of anything but that statement Nick tried to figure out what question was best to ask first. He settled on the most pressing, the child. "How old is, your son or daughter now?" He kept vast control on his temper, hoping it didn't flare.

"She'll be twelve on her next birthday," Sean answered in no less time than it would take for a heart to take a beat.

"Wow," Nick paused for a moment, "so the history between you too, is from a while ago?"

"Yeah, I was just starting college." Juliette explained, finally able to speak to Nick rather than to her shoes."

"Why didn't," Nick scratched the side of his head, "why didn't either of you tell me? I mean, Captain, I get why you wouldn't, that would be kind of awkward, but Juliette, we've been together for three years. How could you not mention that one, you have a child and second, when you saw him and found that he was my boss, how could you not tell me that there was a past relationship between the two of you? I just don't get how you could keep this all from me."

"Given how things ended Nick, I wasn't too keen on sharing the details. My daughter, I was forced to give her up and every time I thought about Sean, I would think about her and all that happened." She sent a look in Sean's direction and after a small nod on his part, she continued. "When I saw him at that event last year, it all came flooding back and my heart practically turned to ash. Then when I talked to him," at this Nick's eyes widened immensely, this new piece of information not exactly meeting with his approval, "Nick, I blew up at him. I yelled, screamed and cried and then after I let it all out, I just wanted to leave. So I did. I went back to you and I was content, right up until now, when he just showed up."

"You just showed up?" Nick asked and Sean confirmed it with a nod. "Why? What happened that you would just show up on our doorstep to see your ex-girlfriend, who has not tried to contact you since she saw you last year?"

"Things have changed. Sarah is no longer safe in the care of only her grandmother and it wasn't just, as you put it, my ex-girlfriend that I was coming to see. Nick, I know who and more importantly what you are. I'm aware of your desire to protect Juliette but she knows a bit more about the community than some," Sean said very carefully.

"What is it Nick is protecting me from Sean?" Juliette questioned honestly, yes she knew about Sean and his mother, could they be talking about that. Was Nick a wessen like they were?

Nick sent a shocked look at his boss, which quickly turned into a glare for telling Juliette that he had been keeping a rather big secret from her. Granted he was stunned that she knew anything about the wessen community, but how did his boss fit in to this?

"How do you know what I am Captain? I have never seen a separate face when I look at you." Nick asked, somehow he figured he wasn't going to be all that thrilled with his boss' response.

"I have known others like you Nick, I am wessen, though my circumstances are a little different from the others you have met. You remember Adalinde Schade? Well she is an old acquaintance of mine and we share a similar as you call, separate face." Nick's glare deepened severally at the mention of the hexenbeist.

"She tried to kill my aunt," Nick said in a voice that could probably freeze through the gates of hell.

"She what! Sean, who is this Adalinde? Why did she try to kill Aunt Marie who was just a nice old retired librarian?" The scoff that came out of both Sean and Nick's mouths at Juliette's words was a hint that there was something she was missing. A big something.

"Marie Kessler was about as nice as I am. She could be, but given the right motivation, that woman was murderous, though considerably less so than her sister." Sean said in answer to Juliette's question. "Also, Nick, yes Adalinde did try to kill your aunt, under my orders," at that Nick went for his gun, "but, my reasoning was for self-preservation. Nick, I didn't send the reapers, that was another group entirely and while I am related I had nothing to do with the hiring. Reapers are sent to rid the world of Grimm's to protect the wessen leaders in power. My family, of which I have nearly no part of, are very much in control of the reapers, and your aunt had been one of their targets for years." Nick collapsed into the chair opposite of Juliette a look of heartache stretched across his face.

"Then why send Adalinde Schade into the mix? Why kill my aunt?" He asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

"In payment of a promise. Nick, your aunt was dying, you knew it and so did she. Once she passed the message and the key along with the truth of your heritage to you, she wanted to end the pain. She was an old woman Nick, she was ready for death to take her. I'll admit Adalinde got a little overzealous with the mission. When she heard the word Grimm and Death, she went straight for the kill, her only knowledge of Grimm's is that they mean almost certain death to our kind, you and your direct line are near the only exceptions only a few of yours were like that." Sean said all of this in a rush, knowing that if he didn't he would probably have a hole in his chest or head within the span of a minute. Possibly less.

"You mean to tell me, my aunt sanctioned her own fucking death!" Nick exploded.

"What's a Grimm?" Juliette asked just as Nick's hands were near cracking the solid wood of the table.

Nick's fury melted away, he was still pissed, but he had a relationship to salvage. He loved Juliette too much to loose her over a secret like this. "I am a Grimm. Grimm's, we can see the other side of the human face. The darkness that resides in their souls. That's why I was stunned about Captain Renard, I have never seen a separate face on him, so to find that he is a wessen of some kind stunned me."

"Why would Adalinde fear a Grimm?" She asked, she was confused about much of this conversation.

"Grimm's are known for causing the death of many of my kind Juliette, Nick and Marie being exceptions, most of them simply killed and left." Nick answered instead.

Since the argument and discussion had finally ceased, Juliette and Sean got down to business about what was really important about this meeting. Sarah.