Chapter 107

Tedious hours passed as we scoured though book upon book for three ingredients. I had them memorized by now; Coeur Diable, which translated to devil's heart (whatever that was), Rot Inguen, which was red groin (I didn't want to know), and Essigblasse, which was pale vinegar (the only thing that sounded remotely normal). Sometimes I'd find one ingredient, occasionally two, but so far none of the books had all three in one Zaubertrank.

"We need another set of eyes to make this go faster," Nick said, closing his book and looking cross-eyed. "My head hurts."

"Mine, too," I agreed. "I'll call Monroe. Maybe he'll forgive us since this wasn't really our fault."

Nick shook his head. "I don't know if that's such a good idea, Renée."

"The worst he can say is 'no,'" I replied. Actually there were far worse things he could say. Maybe he would understand. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed his number. Hopefully he'd answer this time. The phone trilled three times and piercing music hit my ear.

"What now?" Monroe barked loudly when he answered the phone. "Are you calling to tell me that you and Nick are getting married? Cause, you know, after a week, that's the next logical step."

"It's a Zaubertrank," I said quickly. "Nick and I are over at the spice shop with Rosalee. Apparently we've been under a spell by a Hexenbiest and now she's trying to kill Nick's partner, Hank."

"Hold it. What?" I could barely hear him over the music. "Hang on a second."

The music softened. "It's a Zaubertrank," I repeated.

"So, everything with you and Nick… It's a Zaubertrank?" asked Monroe. "Oh, dude… How the hell did that happen?"

"A Hexenbiest. It's a long story."

"A Zaubertrank by a Hexenbiest caused all this?"

"That's what Rosalee thinks."

"So, from what I can surmise from what you're positing is that you and Nick aren't really in love?"

"Right," I replied. He had asked if we weren't in love, right? Either way, it felt wrong to agree.

"You know, I was beginning to think you were off your rocker." Monroe sighed into the phone. "So can Rosalee cure you guys of this stupid puppy love?"

"Yeah, but first we gotta help Hank. We don't know how much time he has left. Ours isn't deadly, but his is. Can you come to the spice shop? We could use your help."

"We… as in you and Nick?" he growled.

"Please, Monroe?"

"Oh man…" he sighed again. "Yeah, I suppose I can come by," Monroe yelled into the phone as the volume of the music increased once more.

"Where are you?"

Monroe hesitated. "Uh, I'm out." The volume changed again. He was obviously moving around somewhere.

"Out where?" I asked suspiciously, closing my eyes. Amongst the din of the music, female voices were faintly giggling in the background.

"Well, I was feeling kinda beleaguered from all sides to say the least, so I, umm, went to Trop Chaud." He tried to sound matter-of-fact about it, but the guilt was still underneath. I picked up on that, too.

"I don't blame you for that," I said quickly. "Can you leave the girls long enough to help us?"

"Yeah, but I swear if either you or Nick even glances at each other… Well, I can't be held accountable for my actions, okay?"

'"Yeah, that's fine." I gulped in spite of myself. "We'll steer clear of each other."

"I'll be over soon."

I hung up the phone and looked at Nick in a panic. "Okay, he's doing better now, but we gotta… 'behave' in front of him." I used finger quotes as I spoke.

"Behave?" Nick narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we can't be affectionate with him here." I pouted a little at that.

"Then let me get one good kiss in before he arrives," Nick said with a grin.

Rosalee stopped him before he could head my way. "Nick, you don't really love her." She gave him a disapproving stare. "Try to focus on Hank."

"It feels like love, though," he retorted as he frowned.

I really wanted to kiss that frown right off his adorable face.

"And right now your partner feels the same way about Adalind. If their relationship goes any further then we can't save him," Rosalee insisted as she pointed at the piles of books we still had to go through. "Please focus."

"There are other things I want to focus on," Nick mumbled as he reached for his book.

I was right there with him.

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

More time passed as we kept searching, but we all looked up when we heard the jingle of the bell up front.

Monroe walked in, but then froze at the door. "Oh, geez. More red?" he scowled as he looked directly at my blouse. I'd completely forgotten. "Is this another test? Are you just testing me, because I'm really about to fail here, man."

His eyes flared scarlet while I scrambled for my black jacket, zipping it up to my neck. "Sorry. I'm so sorry," I mumbled.

Rosalee, who was also wearing a red shirt, tightened her gray sweater around her instinctively.

"Yours is fine," he said to Rosalee and then let out a breath as he walked inside, closing the door behind him.

"I'm glad you're here," I said softly.

Monroe shrugged in acknowledgement, but didn't look too glad to see me or Nick. At least he looked better. Well, he didn't appear as manic or drunk as I'd seen him earlier, anyway. He'd combed his hair down and had changed clothes. The dark circles under his eyes were still apparent, like he hadn't slept in a while, and his scowl was still etched on his face, coupled with a glare he gave Nick that said, 'If you try anything, I will kill you.'

"Well, you asked me to help, so I'm here," Monroe replied after a moment. "So we're dealing with more Zaubertranks and now Hexenbiests?" He sighed and then turned to Rosalee. "You're sure that's what's wrong with these love sick Grimms over here?"

"Yeah, it's definitely a love Zaubertrank," Rosalee nodded, "and it's a strong one."

"Witches, man." Monroe shook his head as he turned toward me. "They're bad news even in real life. I guess I should be happy it wasn't zombies, huh?"

"No zombies," I replied. "And it's just one Hexenbiest in particular."

"Just one?" Monroe turned to Nick. "Please tell me this isn't the same Hexenbiest from before with the whole aunt thing and the…" He gestured with his hands. "The whole, uh, other thing."

"It's the same one," Nick replied with a quick nod.

"Oh man… I asked you not to tell me." Monroe grimaced while thrusting his hands in his pockets. "So, what did you guys, umm, need me for?"

"The Zaubertrank that Nick's partner is under is deadly, but in order to create an antidote, we need to find the Zaubertrank that includes these three ingredients at the top of this sales log," Rosalee explained as Monroe walked over to inspect the log.

"Rot Inguen? Is that what I think it is?" He looked up at Nick. "And your partner willingly put that in his mouth?" Monroe made a disgusted face, blanching for effect.

"It had to be mixed well in something," Rosalee replied, "or the smell alone would have sent him reeling."

Who knew what kind of crazy ingredients Nick and I had in ours? I tried not to think about it.

"Once we help Nick's partner," Rosalee continued, "then we can work on the Zaubertrank that's affecting Renée and Nick." She pointed to the log. "These are the two ingredients that are in theirs, which creates a schwarzherz on their tongues."

"A schwarzherz? Really?" Monroe looked curious, and my darling Nick just looked confused. "I knew there was something going on, but I never would've thought to check for that one."

"So, we have black hearts on our tongues?" I translated the words, mostly for Nick's benefit. Where was a mirror when you needed one? Detective Sexy was biting his equally sexy tongue, and I had to look away. Monroe eyed me while I tried to hide my guilt.

"The schwarzherz bonds you two together," stated Rosalee, like it was commonplace. "Love Zaubertranks like these will manifest thoughts and dreams of the other person into your subconscious, creating an intense emotional attachment. It also has a side effect of poor judgment and lack of concentration, so it makes it impossible for you to accurately determine what you're feeling isn't real. It's like you're walking around in a fog, so to speak."

"So, they're love drunk," Monroe replied with a scowl. "Well, that's just great."

"In a way, yeah," Rosalee replied as she nodded.

"Is that why my head is all… fuzzy?" I asked. Everything Rosalee described down to the dreams was happening to me. Holy crap.

Rosalee nodded. "Your focus will be off and probably other things, too, depending on the exact Zaubertrank. Once the Zaubertrank is complete, the fog goes away, but by then it's too late."

"Well, that explains a lot." Monroe shook his head at me. "You've been acting off all week."

"I've got that, too." Nick piped up. "I had trouble pulling things out of the computer system at work, and it made no sense because I do it all the time."

"My trainings have been horrible lately, and I've been winging them just to get by. I'm forgetting silly things and words." Surely I sounded stupid, too. "And I'm going slow with these books when I should be… faster."

"Going slowly?" Monroe coughed out his correction.

"Thanks," I replied. I looked toward Rosalee. "You see? Is there any way to fix that part now? I know I'm useless like this."

Nick nodded emphatically. "I've got a double homicide that I need to focus on. Is there anything we can do?"

Rosalee paused as she seemed to think it over. "There is something, but it won't fix the love attraction, just the symptoms of the concentration and focus. It doesn't take long to make, and it should immediately make a difference."

"The faster the better," said Monroe. He turned back to me. "No wonder you couldn't quote Shakespeare," he surmised. "That explains it, all right."

"Macbeth again?" Nick asked as he grinned at me.

"A Midsummer's Night's Dream," I replied.

"What were you quoting Macbeth for?" Monroe asked.

I shook my head. "It wasn't anything."

"It was something just between us," Nick chimed in. "Something private."

"Dude, you don't wanna start," Monroe snapped back.

"I'm, uh, going to go work on that concentration elixir," Rosalee said as she ducked into the back room while Monroe narrowed his eyes, the red taking over.

"So, how many stitches did your arm need?" Monroe asked Nick with a satisfied smirk. "I'll bet it took quite a few."

"None," Nick replied quickly, his own smirk forming. "I didn't even have to go to the hospital."

"What, so you decided to act tough and not get it looked at?" he scoffed. "That's real smart, man."

"No, it just wasn't… necessary." Nick gave me a sideways glance.

Monroe darted his head toward me. "Oh, so you…" He shook his head. "Should've guessed that one."

I held my breath, but I didn't say anything.

He turned back toward Nick. "Man, if I'd known she was gonna do all that, then I really would've slashed your face... or maybe worse. You'd have looked like a dozen Siegbarstes had laid into you after I was through."

"I would've had you down on the ground before you even came close," Nick retorted with a clenched jaw. "I was only holding back for Renée's benefit."

"Holding back? Dude, I was holding back way more than you were." Monroe spread his arms wide to emphasis his point. "If I'd gone full force, you wouldn't have stood a snowball's chance in…"

"Can we please not talk about this?" I begged. "We need to help Hank."

Monroe and Nick both glared at each other, looking more than ready to have a round two right in the spice shop. Crap. Maybe I shouldn't have called Monroe after all.

I walked toward Monroe with the copy of the ingredients and a book in my hand. "Let's just search for this Zaubertrank," I continued. "If we don't get an antidote for Nick's partner then…"

"Yeah, yeah, Hank's toast. I get it." Monroe snatched the book from my hands, never taking his eyes off Nick. "But I'm only doing this because I said I'd help, and I have no issues with Hank."

As I walked back to the counter I hummed Second Person's 'Fire.'

"I used to play with matches when I was very small.
Legends of wolves and witches I memorized them all.

But he came right out of nowhere, like an unfamiliar tune.
Sat down upon my armchair and opened up my wounds.

I put up no resistance, so insistent was desire.
But one of my addictions is I used to play with fire…"

Why did I ever think that being with both of them was a good idea? Man may have invented fire, but women knew how to play with it. Chloe was right, it was a dangerous game. My desire was too great, too tempting. I'd played with fire one too many times, and now it had spread into a blaze I couldn't control.

Both men took out their frustrations on their books, flipping pages briskly as their faces held scowls and knitted eyebrows. It was gonna be a long night.

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

The three of us continued to go through pages upon pages of Zaubertranks. Instead of looking over at Nick again, I kept my head down and my eyes on the book. I didn't want to upset Monroe any further than I already had. I hummed as I scanned the pages.

"'La Vie en Rose.' Now that's an old classic I haven't heard in a while." Monroe murmured, and I caught a grin pass his lips.

"Levee on Rose?" Nick asked. "What's that mean?"

I chuckled. In my version of Sabrina, Nick was my William Holden and Monroe... Well, he was definitely my Humphrey Bogart, plaid bowtie and all.

"It's French for life in pink," I said to Nick. "It's an old love song of Edith Piaf."

"Never heard of her," he replied.

"I have her singing that on vinyl at home," Monroe said, and I bit my lip. That was sexy. Mr. Monroe sure knew the way to my heart. He caught my lip bite and gave me a knowing grin.

"Well, I... I really like things that are French," Nick piped up while Monroe rolled his eyes slightly.

I was well aware the kind of French things Nick enjoyed. Geminis were very oral, in more ways than one. My mind lingered only briefly until I dusted the thought away like a cobweb.

It wasn't long until Rosalee returned with two vials of white liquid.

She handed Nick one. "Drink it down quickly, and whatever you do don't smell it. It doesn't taste bad, but the smell is…"

"Enough said," replied Nick as he held his nose with one hand and downed the vial with the other.

Rosalee brought mine over. I studied the liquid, which upon closer inspection revealed little, black things floating inside it.

Rosalee noticed where my eyes were. "You don't want to know," she assured me.

I took the vial, mimicking Nick, and held my nose as I downed it. Fortunately there was no taste, but I held my nose a few seconds longer to be sure the smell wouldn't reach me.

Rosalee took my empty vial. "Give it a few moments, and I believe you'll be able to tell a difference."

She was right. Things became much clearer. I looked over at Nick. Even with the clarity, the love permeated. That hadn't changed, but I didn't feel the fog as I had earlier. Now I'd be able to get through these books in no time.

"Thanks, Rosalee," said Nick. "Much better."

"Like he'd know the difference," Monroe murmured.

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

Time passed as we kept searching for ingredients. I felt eyes on me. Nick was giving me that seductive, toothy grin of his. He mouthed some provocative words in my direction while Monroe was occupied in his book. My teeth grazed the corner of my lip, and I looked back down. I wanted to be on those lips and to feel him say those words against them. My mind went back to the trailer, and then to Nick's mouth. Doing those words would be so…

A faint growl came from my other side, and I turned to Monroe, whose eyes were fiercely red.

He walked over toward me and leaned near my ear. "You're aware my nose knows just as well as my eyes do," he said gruffly with a voice so low it rumbled. "If you don't stop I'll have to leave, you understand?" He lightly bit my earlobe, and I silently nodded. "You're lucky I'm not biting you other places, because that's what I really want to do right now."

I gulped. I did some biting of my own as my teeth went sharply into my lip. I knew exactly what he meant. He wanted to stake claim on me, temporary or not.

"Look, maybe I should just go," Nick stifled a yawn. "I have to work in the morning, and I still have two dead bodies in the morgue with no killer to pin them to."

"Dude, we all have jobs," Monroe scoffed while shaking his head.

"I understand that, but maybe given the situation it would be better if Renée and I weren't in the same room together." Nick gave me a pained stare.

Maybe the black hearts weren't real. My heart was beating out for him like crazy. It was all I could do to not to run over there and…

"Yeah, that's probably for the best, man," Monroe said, halting my thoughts.

I turned and he tapped his nose and shook his head at me. My cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment. As Nick left the spice shop, a small pang in my chest surfaced.

Monroe seemed slightly relieved that Nick was gone. Good, maybe he'd forgive me and we could get back on track. I loved him, too. I loved them both so much. Ugh…

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

The books seemed to multiply as we sat for another hour reading. I rubbed my eyes while trying to focus on the words.

"It'd be easier if I knew what I was looking for," Monroe grumbled and closed his book, then reached for another.

"Any recipe with those three ingredients," Rosalee said, not looking up from her book.

"There's like a thousand recipes in this one," he sighed as he thumbed through the pages.

"Now this place could use a database," I commented. "I'm much better with computers."

"You're bringing up the database again, really?" he growled as he glared at me. "Isn't it bad enough you, like, used that as a pathetic excuse to research your libido?"

"Sorry," I replied softly. "We really did work on the database. I didn't lie about that."

"Yeah, and you worked on exploring the anatomy of a Grimm, too, while you were at it. Did that kinda research go in your database?"

My cheeks flushed. "No."

"Didn't think so," Monroe scoffed.

Rosalee's eyes shot up. "Do you remember the cop that got poisoned?"

Thank goodness she was changing the subject.

"Boil Dude?" Monroe gave a short chuckle. "Yeah, never forgetting that."

"When we were taking him back to his apartment, I mentioned to Pete and Nick that a friend of my father's had come in to my parents' shop with the same symptoms as what that cop had. My father said he had ingested a Zaubertrank meant for somebody else, which causes a boomerang-like effect, so to speak."

"Of course!" I replied. "Hank and the sergeant work together, so maybe Hank brought in whatever Adalind baked him, and the sergeant had some."

"Makes sense, right?" Rosalee waved her hand over the shopping list as she spoke.

"Does anything ever make sense with a Zaubertrank?" Monroe shook his head.

"Real love is hard to find," Rosalee reasoned.

Monroe met my eyes and we held our gaze briefly at Rosalee's words, then we awkwardly looked down again. I couldn't help but smile. It was hard to find, but when you found it no potion around could duplicate it exactly. Even with my crazy feelings for Nick, Monroe was undoubtedly the real thing.

A/N: So whew! More mixing of Grimm story mode and Renée with two Zaubertranks going on. I'm being a little creative with my own Zaubertrank. So the foggy-headedness and the confusion all makes sense now, huh? (At least I hope so.)

Monroe got to go to Trop Chaud after all, LOL!

Although Monroe is happy Renée isn't "off her rocker," he's not too happy to be at the spice shop with both of them, either. There's still some animosity between Monroe and Nick, too... Looks like there's still hope for our Blutbad and Renée with that mutual look at the end.

One thing I love about writing these stories is I get music suggestions from readers. Props go out to my-forgotten-rose for suggesting a group called Second Person. I'm in love, love, love with this group! "Fire" really fit with Renée and I managed to work it into the story last minute. So, maybe if you want something new to listen to, try this group out. I've been playing "Fire" in my car all day. Thank you my-forgotten-rose!

I was out at a bookstore the other day and they had a section of little music boxes. One of them was "La Vie en Rose"! I swear I squealed right in the bookstore, so I had to buy it. I made a little youtube video of it playing. The link is on my profile, so go check it out.

Okay, so stopping here for now. Hopefully, dear readers, you're feeling a tiny bit better where this story is leading. 13 chapters to go, so still more story to tell. Please comment, let me know what you're thinking.
Thanks as always for reading and STAY TUNED! (: