Chapter 4 Nick

It was strange what things he knew how to do reflexively, and yet when he looked at all the scars on his body, he didn't know where they had come from. The doctor told him that was how amnesia worked. You didn't lose skills, you lost memories of people and events. Like filling out a report at work or knowing how to navigate the procedures at the station, those things Nick could accomplish. Still don't ask him when he attended the academy or how he met his partner, Hank, because those facts escaped Nick entirely.

It was like that with everyone, but there was only one person he had forgotten that made him feel rotten. Oh, Juliette wasn't intentional about it and some of it was his own guilty conscience, but Nick felt like a jerk. To have lived with someone for several years then one day all those memories of their life and love gone. It had to be heartbreaking. He could see in her eyes that resentment had never left, but Nick didn't know how to fix it. His first night home from the hospital, he offered to sleep on the couch so she could have the bedroom, which caused her face to drain of color a bit before she said no. When he awoke the next day, she was gone and there was a note that said she was staying at Rosalee's. He would have given Juliette what she needed if he knew how, Nick thought.

"You look a million miles away, Nick. You thinking of anything I can help out with?" Hank was pretty reliable to pick up on things bothering him, Nick realized. He guessed that was what a good partner did.

"It's all confusing. Grimm, Wesen, cop, and then there's the situation with Juliette," Nick confessed. "We were pretty close, I take it, but from the moment I woke up in that hospital bed I've felt like she has resented me," he finished.

"You were close. In fact you proposed, but it was before she knew about you being a Grimm and she suspected you were hiding something from her," Hank explained. "I think she refused you because of that. You guys have had a rough road since then, but I think another proposal was coming soon."

"But why does she resent me so much?" Nick needed to know. To him, Juliette was beautiful but broken beyond what he could fix.

"I think it's the way you lost your powers," Hank replied. "There's this witch. Actually she's Wesen, a Hexenbiest. Anyway, you've been enemies since you first became a Grimm and to take your powers, she transformed herself into Juliette and slept with you." Hank's eyebrows were raised for emphasis.

"Did I know she was this witch when I slept with her?" Nick asked. "And what have I ever done to this hexen...whatever to make her do this?"

"It's a long story, but she tried to kill your aunt and me. To be honest, those were orders from the captain, but you had to take her powers to save me," Hank expounded. Really, this sounded like a soap opera, Nick pondered, and why are we on such good terms with the captain if this is true. Captain Renard had returned today to much applause, including Hank's. Am I missing something, Nick wondered. "Then, because you took her powers, she put Juliette in a coma, which caused Juliette to forget you for months," Hank continued.

"Okay, now this really does sound like a soap opera," Nick snickered.

"It wasn't so funny at the time. For all those reasons you both were bitter enemies. For a time there you both had called a truce and you even protected her and her daughter when someone was hunting them. However, what I think drove her to get her revenge by taking your powers was the fact that you and your mother took her baby away from her," Hank finished.

"Wait a minute. We stole her baby? Really?" Nick asked astounded. That was like a slap in the face to know he had done something like that.

"Did you hear the part about trying to kill people and putting Juliette in a coma?" Hank countered.

"That could never excuse us for abducting an innocent child. If I really did that, then I'm happy not to be the same person that I used to be," Nick declared. Hank just shook his head and let it go.

Nick was heading to a tea shop where he was meeting Monroe. Of all these new yet not so new friends of his, Nick felt an affinity for the guy, even if Monroe did scare the crap out of him that first day. Monroe genuinely seemed to care what Nick's wishes were and took them to heart. Although Nick hadn't been around Rosalee as much as her husband, she made Nick feel at ease as well. They wanted to share something with him.

Upon entering the shop, Nick groaned inwardly seeing Juliette there as well as Trubel. He had learned the younger woman was also a Grimm and looked up to him as almost a big brother. Theresa Rubel had been in the foster system nearly all her life and became known as TRubel. Then after registering everyone else, Nick laid eyes on a woman of middle age that was fabulously taken care of, with blond hair and a slim figure.

"Hey Nick this is Elizabeth, Renard's mother," Monroe explained. Nick was a little wary. From what Nick had heard, his capitan had been behind several plots against him at one point and Nick hadn't had a chance to judge Renard for himself. He nodded and extended his hand which Elizabeth shook firmly. "I think you should hear her out, because she has a way to make you a Grimm again. If that's what you want," Monroe stipulated.

"Okay, but I'll be honest, from what I've heard about myself before as well as the shear insanity of the whole thing, I'm inclined against it," Nick returned. Trubel had a bit of a panicked look and Juliette brooded the more, but everyone else simply nodded.

"Nick, I'm not sure I can do this alone. I mean before I met you when I was on my own, I got thrown into one mental institution after another. I don't really know what the hell I'm doing half the time," Trubel pleaded. His heart went out to Trubel, yet he couldn't commit his life to something just for her.

"I'll hear you out," Nick conceded.

"I can replicate a spell to reverse the curse you're under and the only thing you would have to do is make love to Juliette, but she won't look like herself," Elizabeth explained.

Maybe if Juliette looked like another woman that was not such a bad thing, and yet the prospect of becoming this Grimm again was not appealing. Rosalee came up to him with empathy in her look and gently said, "It's up to you, Nick. It's your life, but I want to know how valuable you are to us Wesen. Any other Grimm has always killed our kind without even a second thought."

"Yeah, I would never have thought I'd have a Grimm as a best man at my wedding, but I couldn't have imagined that day without you, man," Monroe chimed in with sincere affection. Well maybe the person he had been wasn't all bad, Nick thought.

"I'll consider it," Nick replied.

"There may be more side effects to the curse than you have realized yet, so consider quickly. I won't be here much longer," Elizabeth stressed. He nodded his acknowledgement.