Lionel stared in shock and horror at the Portland detective. No, not 'the Portland detective.' The Grimm. They'd just saved a friggin' Grimm. All the blood drained from Lionel's face as he woged.

"A Fuchsbau and a Blutbad?" the Grimm remarked, his expression a cross of annoyance and surprise. If Lionel thought he seemed too pretty to be a cop, he was definitely too pretty to be a Grimm.

"What's it to you?" Lionel snapped defensively, forcing the woge down and returning to human form. If the Grimm decided to attack him, it wouldn't matter what shape Lionel was in, anyway.

"There have been rumors of a Grimm active in Portland," Mr. Suit said in a soft, dangerous snarl. His crimson eyes seemed to bore a hole in the Grimm's face.

Lionel rarely saw his 'employer' woge. Some Blutbaden, he heard, controlled the bloodlust through vegetarian diet, or a strict exercise regimen, or even yoga. Mr. Happy, though - he broke bones instead of eviscerating his enemies, kneecapped them with rounds from a semiautomatic pistol instead of savagely gutting them with claws and teeth. Quite possibly the most terrifying form of 'wieder discipline' Lionel'd ever heard of.

"Why would the Verrat go after one of their own minions? What did you do?" The Blutbad's growl would have scared off a pack of starving, vicious wolves.

The Grimm's lips twisted angrily. "I don't work for the Verrat," he emphatically insisted. "I never have. And I'd be more than happy if they simply stayed far, far away from my little corner of the world. Look, I only learned about this whole... family problem... a bit more than a year ago, right as my aunt was dying."

"Marie Kessler," the man in the suit noted, his gun not wavering in the slightest at the name of one of the most feared Grimms in the world. Lionel was not nearly so cool under pressure, and swallowed heavily.

Despite Nick Burkhardt's pretty looks, the Portland detective's family carried a reputation that was, quite frankly, bloody. The spattered bits of Hundjäger on the man's shirt did certainly nothing to soothe Lionel's nerves, either.

"I take it you've heard of her. Up until she was dying, I'd never heard of Grimms, or Wesen, or any of it." Prettyboy raised his chin defiantly. "John, or whatever your name is, I don't know what experiences you've had with Grimms. Though whatever they were, they were probably bad. But, in the end, it's who I am, just as much as you're a Blutbad, and I've come to accept it."

"Hey, tell me this, Detective: how can you be a cop and a Grimm, anyway? Isn't that some sort of conflict of interest or something?" Lionel demanded, trying to tamp down the hysteria that threatened to overwhelm him. All the horror stories he'd heard as a kid, that he'd teased his own son with, none of them had prepared him to come face to face with a real live Grimm. But this was happening, here, now, right before his eyes. It was real.

"I don't go around chopping people's heads off, if that's what you mean." Prettyboy seemed slightly irritated, but continued anyway. "You're a cop. How does it work for you, being a Fuchsbau?"

"Yeah, but you're a Grimm!"

"Lionel," growled Mr. Suit warningly. "Be quiet."

Prettyboy shook his head expressively. "It's not easy. A lotta people are freaked out by me when they realize I'm a Grimm. But sometimes they have problems that only a Grimm can fix. A 17-year-old girl, kidnapped and almost gang-raped by her own uncle and cousins, because of some barbaric Coyotl ritual. A teenage Blutbad who'd lived in the woods since she was seven years old after being kidnapped by a neighbor. A Seltenvogel being held captive by her Klaustreich husband and force-fed so she'd produce her golden egg-"

Wonderboy abruptly shifted back to human form, though his eyes retained the angry crimson of a Blutbad. "You've helped a Seltenvogel?" he demanded.

"Hey, I thought they were extinct!" Lionel remarked irrelevantly. Both men shot shot brief glares at him, and he shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Yes, I helped a Seltenvogel. And I managed to safely deliver the egg without killing her."

Mr. Happy's eyebrows came together dangerously. "And what happened to the Unbezahlbar?"

Prettyboy snorted lightly. "I threw it up in the air to distract the husband and his oh-so-charming cousin the local sheriff, who was helping him. The rock ended up shattered into a thousand pieces and both of them are now in jail."

Lionel nearly choked. A Seltenvogel's 'egg' was priceless while intact, but the delicate golden stone became worthless when damaged. That he would just throw the thing in the air as a distraction...

For several long moments, Wonderboy stood as still as a statue. Was Mr. Glasses talking in his ear, Lionel wondered? Probably. No doubt he was the one who figured out that Prettyboy's aunt was a notorious Grimm. Once that connection was made, it wasn't a huge intellectual leap for her nephew to be a Grimm, too, especially given his knowledge of wolfsbane and the Verrat's interest in him.

"Robin Steinkellner," the man in the suit said finally. The name, no doubt provided by their fussy friend, meant nothing to Lionel. The Grimm made no indication to confirm or deny Wonderboy's declaration, but there seemed to be something strange passing between the two of them.

Whatever it was, it was enough for Wonderboy's eyes to return to their normal pale blue as he lowered his gun. Lionel let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "We should get out of here. Go back to the station with Lionel here. Try not to kill him on the way; he's useful on occasion."

"Thanks." Lionel's voice dripped sarcasm. Even if Wonderboy had, for whatever reason, given the Grimm his stamp of approval, Lionel wasn't nearly so sanguine about sharing a car with him.

"You should probably give him back his phone, too, Lionel," the man in the suit noted in a mild tone, as if moments before he hadn't been ready to burst into murderous violence.

More than anything, Lionel wished he'd called in sick that morning.


A/N: Nick mentions cases in which he helped Wesen as a Grimm, from episodes 2.03, "Bad Moon Rising"; 1.07, "Let Your Hair Down"; and 1.16, "The Thing With Feathers."

Robin Steinkellner was the victimized Seltenvogel from "The Thing With Feathers." Seltenvögel are based off the mythological golden goose. Once in their life, they can produce a golden "egg," priceless but fragile. Seltenvögel are so rare that most Wesen believe them to be extinct. In my Grimm-POI fusion, Finch himself is one of these creatures - this is covered in my related short, "A Rare Bird," which is the literal translation of "seltenvogel".

A Klaustreich is a Wesen resembling an alley cat.

EDIT: Apparently, there was some confusion about how Reese figured out Nick was a Grimm. I've edited the chapter a bit to clarify this somewhat, though Nick is going to ask about this very question in the next chapter.