CHAPTER FIVE

Adalind was speechless. Surely she had heard wrong... or Nick had misspoken. How could she be the love of his life? Sure, they shared a child together, and they had grown closer, closer than she had ever thought or dreamed possible. But all of this had been the result of her manipulations. Nick would never have ended up with her had it not been for the horrible things she did to Juliette. There was no way he could have fallen in love with the Hexenbiest who took away his lover... he was a Grimm after all.

Nick was starting to get nervous; Adalind had still not said anything.

"Adalind, did you hear what I said?"

"I... Nick, you're in shock over Juliette's death..."

"No I'm not" Nick interrupted. "Eve being gone has nothing to do with how I feel about you. I know I haven't been an open book with you, and it's taken a long time for me to realize just how much you mean to me. But I have to let you know, you need to know..."

"I'm sorry Nick, I can't do this" Adalind said, pulling away from him.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I can't let you ignore how you feel about Juliette..."

"Stop calling her Juliette!" Nick shouted.

He hadn't meant to yell, but Adalind wasn't making this easy.

"Juliette has been gone for a while now" Nick said in a lower tone of voice. "The second she turned into a Hexenbiest, Juliette died. Adalind, you need to listen to me; I am not with you because Juliette's gone. I am not with you just because you gave birth to my child. You've changed so much, even I can't believe how much, but you have. You are this whole new person... you're caring and loving. You're an amazing mother to Kelly. You're beautiful both inside and out."

Adalind started crying again. But these tears were different; they were tears of joy. Although she still couldn't bring herself to smile. It all seemed so unreal.

"When I first met you, right before you woged, something stirred up deep down inside of me... I couldn't explain it at first. I thought it was just the Grimm in me being born. Every time we crossed paths after that, the same feeling kept coming back, and each time I tried to bury it. I spent years trying to forget it... even when I was with Juliette. I never wanted to admit it to myself. I just assumed it was my Grimm instincts trying to protect me from you, that it couldn't possibly be anything else. But it had nothing to do with me. It was all about you, Adalind. You."

Nick reached closer and took Adalind's hand.

"You changed my life. You made me who I am. There's a reason why I met you that day; it was fate. Adalind... you and I were meant to be."

"Nick..."

"No, please... let me finish" he interrupted.

"Ok" Adalind said, her voice shaky from all the emotions that were running through her.

"When you came back from Vienna and told me you were pregnant with my child, the exact same feeling that had stirred up inside of me when I first met you came rushing back... only this time it was much stronger. Yes, I was angry, there was no denying that; but part of me was... relieved. Because I finally knew what that feeling was... it was love."

Adalind's hand squeezed Nick's. Her eyes lit up, and a faint smile began to form on her lips. He tenderly took her face in his hands and looked deep down into her sparkly blue eyes.

"You're my world, my universe, my everything. I love you Adalind."

"I love you too Nick" she said, her voice full of emotion.

Nick slowly bent down to kiss her. Gently at first, then passionately.