Chapter 33

The next day I was a zombie at work. I dozed off at least once during my meeting and I mixed up my trainings. Twenty minutes into my presentation, I had one employee raise his hand and ask why they were being taught about banking securities. I almost snapped, 'Because this is what you'll be doing for the company,' until I realized this class was supposed to be on private equity. I was annoyed it took twenty minutes for someone to speak up.

The rest of the day fell into the same pattern, so I snuck off to Starbucks and got a double espresso to survive. I sat outside, savoring the caffeine while I went through my calendar on my phone. Spring. It was spring! In my daze I'd completely forgotten. A smile washed over me at the thought. Winter was over and now things were going to be better. My smile lasted through the rest of my day, but then the exhaustion set back in when it was time to go home.

At five I shut down my computer, crawled across the parking lot to my Malibu, and fell into the driver's seat. I leaned my head back. Perhaps I could just take a nap here first. My eyelids drooped. I shook off the sleepiness, and once I arrived home, I collapsed on the couch without so much as taking off my heels. I got five minutes at the most before the phone rang.

"Are you home yet?" Monroe asked.

"Uh-huh," I mumbled into my cell.

"You okay, Hun?" Monroe asked with concern.

"Didn't get to sleep until late last night."

"What did you do last night?"

"I went over to Nick's trailer and time slipped away."

Monroe was silent then finally asked, "How late were you up?"

"Oh, I think I got home close to three," I said weakly. I was going to fall asleep in a moment. My couch was so comfortable.

"Three… in the morning?" he questioned with a sharp tone.

"Yeah. The time got away from us."

"So, I guess you stopping by tonight isn't happening, huh?"

"I'm about to fall asleep talking to you," I replied.

Monroe let out a sigh. "I'll let you sleep then. If you get up and wanna stop by, call me, okay?"

"Yeah. I can do that." My eyes were closed and I had the cell phone propped against my ear. "Happy spring," I added.

"Spring? Is it spring?"

"Yeah, it's the first day of spring," I drawled out. "Things are going to get better now."

"Umm, okay. If you say so," he chuckled. "Get some sleep and I'll see you later I hope."

I tried to motivate myself to get up, so I could go to bedroom, but the motivation had left me long ago.

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

Mark Knopfler singing in my ear knocked me off the couch. Cell phone. Nick. I scrambled to find the phone as I rubbed my back. I'd fallen asleep on the couch and the position I'd slept in had me all twisted up.

"Hey, Renée. I have more books to transcribe. Come on over."

"What time is it?"

"Nine-thirty." I'd slept the night away.

"Okay, but just an hour this time," I replied with a yawn.

One hour became two, then four. Nick and I were starting to scan pages in, and I'd found a way to link certain texts directly to the sketches. This was going to be better than Google once we were done.

Nick's cell rang as we were linking a Nuckelavee to an anatomy drawing.

"Slow down, Hank," Nick said into the phone. "When…? Tonight…? Was he there…? No, I'm leaving right now. I'll meet you at the Captain's condo."

Nick turned to me as he shoved his phone in his pocket. "I've got to leave. I've got a murder and a B and E to deal with."

"Did you say it was the police captain?"

"Yeah," Nick replied while putting on his jacket. "Now hurry up so I can go."

"Really?" I replied as my eyes widened. "Wow, who would be brave enough to do that?"

"That's what we're going to find out."

"Was he hurt?"

"Renée, I don't have time right now," Nick scowled.

I packed quickly and made my way to my car. Nick sped off as I closed my car door. Maybe I could still go see Monroe. I glanced at the clock in my car. Almost two. Crap, it was way too late. I stopped off for a veggie fajita wrap at Taco Bell. It was way too late to eat something like this, but I was starving. I'd skipped dinner. I yawned on the drive home as I tried to eat at the red lights. This was no way to live.

By the time I got home at quarter after two, I fell into bed without changing clothes.

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

The next morning I was late to work. I was never late to work. Even when Monroe was keeping me up until the wee morning hours, I was always on time. This was bad. Really bad.

The rest of my day was off kilter and I was able to scrape by in my two trainings without anyone noticing anything was wrong.

Come five o'clock I somehow got in my car and made it home. I passed out on the couch again.

When my cell rang I tried to use Jedi mind powers to propel the phone from the coffee table into my hand. It didn't work, and I finally got up to answer it before it stopped ringing.

"Hey, Honey," Monroe said.

"Hey," I replied wearily.

"Oh man, did you still not get enough sleep?"

"Well, I slept last night, but then I got back up."

"What did you do last night? Not Nick's again?"

"Yeah. He had some more books he wanted to show me and I told him just an hour, but then it went over that and…"

"Whoa, okay, okay. Slow down." Monroe said. I was beyond rambling. "If you were up you should've come over here instead."

"I know, but we're working on transcribing books into the computer. And…"

"No, I get it. Grimm work," he huffed out.

"Sorry, Monroe."

"Yeah, I can tell," was his sarcastic reply. "So what time did you crawl into bed this time?"

"Uhh… Earlier than the night before." It was true, just barely.

"Past midnight?"

"Umm, a little after two."

"Geez," he sighed. "So, yeah, I guess you're going to sleep again, right?" he said sounding pretty annoyed.

"You wanna come over here?" I muttered into the phone. It was propped against my head while I remained curled up on the couch.

"Dude, if you're gonna be asleep when I get over there, then that kinda defeats the purpose of seeing you."

"Forgive me?" I yawned.

"I miss you," he replied in a softer tone.

"Tomorrow I am all yours, I promise."

"I expect you to honor that promise, all right?"

"Yes… will do."

As I hung up the phone, I opened one eye to the news that was on TV. The newscaster was detailing the robbery of the police captain last night. They showed a bad surveillance camera video of the condo entrance as a figure all in black ran through the lobby. The newscaster returned to say that a doorman was killed in the process. The captain himself appeared on the screen.

"We have evidence that this incident is related to the theft from the Japanese exhibit from last week. If we have a serial thief in our city, then we will find the person or persons responsible and there will be justice. These crimes will not go unpunished."

I shook my head. When thieves were stealing from the ones that were supposed to protect the rest of us… Well, then no one was safe.

The newscaster returned and went over the rest of the news. A robbery in the Pearl district wounded a Chevron attendant, a man was arrested for attempted murder of his wife, and a local church received an anonymous donation of $100,000 to assist with their orphanage.

My eyes slowly closed as the sportscaster showed highlights of the Trailblazers loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)

I jumped up at Dire Straits playing by my ear, but I stayed on the couch this time.

"So, I have a few films of Aunt Marie's I want you to see tonight."

"Nick, I can't tonight," I said while trying to keep the southern drawl to a bare minimum.

"Oh…" he sounded disappointed.

"I've got to get some sleep, I've been burning the candle at both ends lately and I've got to catch up."

"How about tomorrow night?" he asked.

"We'll talk about it tomorrow. So are you working on this serial thief thing?"

"Yeah," he replied slowly. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just odd that this person has robbed two officials. Well, one was indirectly, but it's still odd."

"Renée, you don't need to worry about it."

"But don't you think…"

"Renée, don't worry about it."

"Okay, I understand. You can't discuss it. But if it's something Wesen then we can talk all night," I scowled. "I'm going back to sleep now and I'll talk to you later."

I pushed buttons on the phone until the call ended before Nick could respond. I dragged myself into the bedroom and actually changed clothes before going back to sleep.

A/N: So Monroe isn't too pleased about the Grimm work, huh?

The captain was robbed... Ruh-oh! I'm going off cannon a bit with this story arch, but it won't effect the original show plot, I assure you.