Chapter 32

Most of Monday was spent with Daniel in my office going over training materials. Needless to say, I was thankful when five o'clock arrived. Monroe was doing much better and had come over for the evening. He'd been stuck in the house for days, so a change of venue was good for him. Monroe needed to catch up on work, so he left my house shortly after dinner. I didn't mind, since I had some things to work on at the house.

My phone rang that night as I was watching an old rerun of I Love Lucy. The cell phone display read Nick Burkhardt. That man needed his own ring tone.

"Hello?" I answered while glancing at the clock. It was past ten.

"Renée. Are you free tonight?" he asked.

"I'm in my PJs," I remarked.

"Oh, I wanted to see if you could meet me here at the trailer. I've got this section on…"

"It's kinda late, Nick." I cut him off. "Why don't you call Monroe?"

"I already did. He's working on some clock that has to be done tonight."

"Right, the Elgin."

"What's that?"

"It's a brand of wristwatch. Can't this wait until tomorrow?"

"Look, it's just for an hour or so, and it's not that late."

I rolled my eyes at the phone. "Okay. One hour and then I've gotta go home."

"Good. Bring your laptop. I'll see you soon."

As I hung up the phone I looked down at my PJs. My warm, comfortable PJs. Shaking my head, I let out a hard sigh. I changed into a sweater and jeans and grabbed my jacket and my laptop as I headed to my Malibu. I was getting used to the route to the trailer in the seedy parking lot. I hooked up my MP3 player and put on some Jackson Browne.

"Running on,
Running on Empty.
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels.
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels…"

God, I was tired. If it wasn't for my curiosity I would've just told Nick I was staying in for the night. But it was hard to say no to the opportunity to read though centuries of Wesen history. Nick's trailer was growing on me. It was fantastic, as long as I blocked out the murdering of Wesen part. I'd love to stay a whole day in there, just absorbing everything like a sponge. At least if I had my laptop I could add to the database I'd been compiling.

Nick was waiting for me and the door opened on the first knock. His 'must be done tonight' question was a German section on Jägerbars. I Google'd what I couldn't translate and added it to the database, along with a paper copy for the book.

"I've been reviewing some of these Wesen I've seen, and since you're here, maybe we can discuss what you've seen, too. I'd like to know if there's anything more I can add to these records."

"Sure, we can… discuss," I replied, using his word.

"Okay then. Well, since we're on the topic of Jägerbars, have you seen one?" He asked, turning the book around and pointing to the accurate sketch on the page.

I strained a laugh. "Yeah, I've encountered them." I told him about my experience in college.

"You were chased by four of them?" Nick was as wide-eyed as Monroe had been. "It sounds like a roh-hatz," he added.

"I don't think it was ceremonial as much as getting revenge on my threats," I replied. "It wasn't a pleasant experience."

I moved the laptop from the trailer bed to the other side of the desk and we went through the notes from the book. Most I knew, some things were new and I found the personal accounts of distant ancestors really interesting to read.

"Oh! I have one of the disemboweling weapons!" Nick said triumphantly as he shot up from the desk chair and walked over to the wooden cabinet. There were those murderous culminations of weapons again. I held back a sigh.

Nick returned with a weapon in his hand and laid it on top of the book. It was old and resembled a bear claw, much like the sketch in the book had detailed. The top of the handle was whittled to resemble a bear's head. I really had no inclination to touch it. Who knew how many people or Wesen had been gutted with that thing? I certainly didn't want my hands near it.

Nick grinned as he leaned against the desk. "I bet you've never seen one of these up close."

"No, you've got me there." I raised an eyebrow, poking at it with an ink pen.

"This family of Jägerbars had one in a display case in their living room," he said as he told me about the bears that had their own roh-hatz with a couple who broke into their house.

"So, they still have those? I thought that was just an old world rite of passage."

"It usually is, but there are some that still practice it. Fortunately, we found their victims in time."

I shook my head. I knew about many things, but I was feeling naïve compared to what Nick had witnessed in the few short months of being able to see the 'other world.' Maybe I was assuming too much about Nick's inexperience. He was right in the thick of it.

"So what do you know about Lowen?" he asked as he turned to the section in another book and sat back down.

I went over my basic knowledge. "The night in that barn was the first time I'd actually encountered one."

I shared the details about the Lowen Games from rescuing Monroe and the cattle prod, to getting tied up.

"Leo Taymor tied you to a chair?"

I nodded. Was that his name? And here Chloe thought her parents hated her for naming her Clover.

"Fortunately I'm good with ropes, or I may have been the next contestant in that Gladiator ring." I shook my head at the thought.

"I almost missed my anniversary dinner because of that guy," Nick sighed. "And then after all that, he got away."

I tried to not think about that Lowen still lurking around.

"How long have you and Juliette been together?" I asked to change the subject.

"A little over three years." He looked around the trailer. "Not being able to share all this with her has been…" He paused as he let out a breath. "I'm not used to keeping secrets from her."

"Nick, if you brought her in here and showed her this stuff, she'd think you were certifiable."

"She's seen the trailer."

My eyes widened. "She's been in here?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah. When Aunt Marie first brought the trailer over, we both looked around. At the time we thought my aunt was just eccentric."

"This is a bit more than eccentric," I grinned.

"I still want to tell her. I just don't know any way to do it where she'll believe me."

"Like I said before, you just have to wait until an opportunity presents itself. If you just drag her in here and expect she's going to understand, then…"

"Yeah, I know." He cut me off. "I just don't want lose her."

I smiled up at him. "Juliette isn't going anywhere."

I tried to stay positive for his sake. Keeping these secrets hidden from the ones we loved wasn't easy. In my experience it was best if they didn't know. Not that I hadn't felt the same way Nick did at one time or another. This secret had put a strain on the relationships I'd had in the past. Sometimes I'd come home to Jack and want to talk to him the way I could with Chloe and my other Wesen friends. But that was just part of myself I couldn't share. After trying to explain it to people as a child and having to go to therapy because of my 'delusions,' I'd come to realize that there was a reason Wesen couldn't be seen by the human eye. People just weren't ready to comprehend such a thing.

Nick flipped to another page in the journal. "So, Spinnetods?"

Four books later we had talked about everything from Spiders and Goats to Snakes. We kept swapping stories back and forth and the conversation was nonstop.

I looked down at my bare wrist. I hadn't had time to put my watch on before coming over. "What time is it?" I asked.

"Nick looked down at his cell phone and made a face. "You don't want to know," he said.

"Is it past midnight?" I asked.

"Uh, it's two-fifteen."

"No way. It can't be that late!" I exclaimed. I stood so I could see the clock on the back of the trailer. Sure enough it was indeed that late. "I've really gotta go. I have a meeting at seven and two trainings tomorrow back to back." I put my hand to my head. Boy, I was going to be exhausted tomorrow. I packed up quickly.

Nick stood up and was behind me as I grabbed my coat from the trailer bed.

"I'm glad you came over tonight." He stopped as he looked at me. "We oughta to do this more often."

"We really should," I agreed. "It's good to have someone else to talk to about this." I patted his shoulder. "I'm happy the secrets are over between us."

Nick had that goofy, toothy grin of his. "I'll probably be here again tomorrow if you wanna stop by. I have plenty of books to keep us occupied. That database is really growing."

"Yeah, I ought to be able to do that," I replied with my genuine smile. "Just give me a call."

Actually I was looking forward to working on the Grimm Google database again. Maybe I'd been too quick to judge Nick Burkhardt. We had quite a bit in common, and not just the Grimm thing. Tonight we had both learned a few things. On the drive home, I switched out Nick's ringtone to Dire Straits' 'Private Investigation.'

"This is my investigation; it's not a public inquiry.
I go checking out the reports, digging up the dirt.
You get to meet all sorts in this line of work …"

A/N: Nick and Renée might not be buddies yet, but Renée is seeing him in a better light.