Hank drives them in the direction of the station, but about halfway there, he takes a turn. The car's heat is turned all the way up. Nick feels the warmth start to seep back into his body as his shock starts to wear off. Rain is still hitting the windshield, but it is no longer pouring like it had been only a few minutes before. Nick realizes that Hank is driving him towards his house.
"Do you want me to have a uniform drop your truck off later tonight or call me tomorrow for a ride in?" Hank asks. His tone of voice makes it very clear that he does not want Nick not going back to the station until tomorrow.
"Actually, can you take me to a friend's place?"
Nick does not want to go back to his empty house. There is nothing for him do and no one for him to talk to at his dwelling. After the stressful week, Nick thinks that he might go crazy if he just sits in his house alone.
"I guess." Hank agrees so Nick gives him Monroe's address.
By the time they reach Monroe's house, the rain has stopped. Nick is still wet as he climbs out of the car, but is not dripping like he had been at the start of the ride. He bends over to look at Hank through the open car door.
"Thanks for the ride." Nick grins at his partner.
"No problem. Do you want your truck dropped off here or are you going to get a ride tomorrow?" Hank answers. His gaze is trained on Monroe's house clearly trying place where he has seen it instead of looking at Nick as he speaks.
"If you could get the uniform to drop it off here, that'd be great. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah. Bye."
Nick shuts the car door. He waits until he Hank drives down the street before walking up the short sidewalk to Monroe's front door. He knocks loudly. While Nick is waiting for Monroe to answer, he thinks about how he is interrupting Monroe's night, but he cannot bring himself to feel bad about it. The door swings open a few seconds to reveal Monroe carrying more decorations for his house, and Nick stops trying to feel guilty.
At the sight of the Grimm, Monroe groans, but he opens the door wider allowing Nick to enter his house. Nick takes a couple of steps into the front hall. Classical holiday music drifts out of speakers to Nick's ears.
"What do you want this time?" Monroe demands.
"We're friends. Can't I just come over to visit you?"
Monroe snorts. "Yeah, but you don't. What do you want?"
"Nothing. I just didn't want to go back to my place right now. I can leave if this is a bad time"
Monroe really looks at Nick for the first time that evening. Something is obviously eating at the Grimm. He had been caught out in the earlier rainstorm because his clothes were still visibly wet. Nick also appears exhausted. Monroe knows that being a Grimm and a police detective at the same time cannot be easy, and he wonders just what Nick had been working. The detective just gives the air of being miserable. Monroe does not have the heart to tell him to go away so he just shakes his head.
"Do you want a beer? Or a towel?" The Blutbad asks. He doesn't wait for answer before going to get the items he offered.
Nick takes the offered beer and takes a long drink from it. When he sets it down, he notices Monroe freeze. He sniffs at Nick causing the detective to shoot him a look. A look that said he was humoring Monroe. The humoring look turns to a look of confusion when Monroe is suddenly across the room without warning. Nick takes a step towards him, but Monroe moves again making sure that there is always a piece of furniture between them. Nick stops, and Monroe does as well.
"Why are you avoiding me?" Nick asks.
Monroe looks at him like he is stupid. It is actually a look that he gives Nick pretty often, but this time it looks a bit more serious than usual.
"I'm trying to keep out of the middle of this."
"By staying away from me? Is this one of those Grimm things that you don't want tell me about but can really kill me?"
"Yes. Only it's not your life I'm concerned about."
Nick sighs. He starts towards Monroe again, but Monroe shows agility by darting away towards the kitchen. Nick stops again. He thinks that his friend is being ridiculous. If it were not for the fact that the man is the only one who knows anything about the Grimm side of the world, Nick doubts he would still be talking to Monroe.
"What is this even about?"
"What is this even about? This is about me not getting killed because I get in between you and your fiancé." Monroe practically shouts.
Nick throws up his hands in a startled gesture because he most certainly is not engaged. He never proposed to Juliette. Besides, he does not have anyone who would go into a jealous rage over him anymore. Not that anyone has a reason to be jealous of Monroe. "What fiancé?"
Monroe makes a disbelieving noise like he cannot believe that Nick has no idea what he is talking about. Nick really wants to know what Monroe is talking about now because he has a feeling that he is not going to like whatever Monroe has to say.
"Well… you know how some cultures arrange marriages?" Monroe finally asks slowly.
Nick just stares waiting for Monroe to finish. His initial feeling that he would not like where Monroe was going is proven correctly.
"Well. I know they're not really practiced anymore, but in the Grimm world they're still pretty common. Mostly it's done to keep two families from fighting, but sometimes it's done for the protection of one of the parties."
"And?"
"And, you smell like your fiancé. I mean I've smelled him on you before, but it's really strong now." Monroe shrugs. "It smells like he was lying on top of you or something… Maybe…" He pauses. "You know sometimes the smell grows stronger when fiancés claim each other for the first time…"
Nick's face pales, and he focuses on not thinking about the incident that led him to end up at Monroe's. He focuses on not thinking about Renard's possessive tone of voice, possessive stance, just his possessiveness overall. He cannot be supposed to marry Renard. It would be impossible. Surely, his Aunt Marie would have told him about an arranged marriage.
There's a knock on the front door startling Nick from his internal reflection. He looks around for Monroe, but he is nowhere in sight having wandered off while Nick was having his internal freak out. Nick knows he might scare off someone Monroe might have coming over so he looks through the peephole to see a Portland PD officer standing on the doorstep. Past the uniform, Nick can see his truck parked out on the curb so he opens the door to retrieve his keys. He thanks the officer and shuts the door.
Monroe appears again. He watches Nick carefully like he is worried Nick's freak out might turn physical.
"Who was that?" Monroe inquires.
"Someone dropping off my truck." Nick closes his hand around his keys. "Thanks for the beer and the towel, but I need to be going."
"I thought you didn't want to go home." Monroe protests.
"I'm not going home."
"Then where are you going to do?"
"To talk to my fiancé and ask him what the hell is going on."
"Wait. You know who it is?"
"Yes." Nick makes a point not to elaborate any further as he pulls Monroe's door open. Monroe clearly wants to ask more questions. He makes the smart decision to remain silent though, as Nick pulls the door shut behind him.
Nick leaves Monroe's house and heads towards the station even though he knows he won't be welcomed. He realizes that he forgot to ask Monroe about what kind of creature Thomas Jones might have been. As Nick spends more time thinking about it, he comes to the conclusion that dealing with this fiancé situation is more important than identifying a dead Grimm creature. He also thinks that if his situation is that obvious to Monroe, it would be best to deal with it before every other creature in the Portland area starts finding out.