Chapter 111

We were getting restless. Hours and hours passed as we worked on mixing and pouring. Now it was simmering. It had been simmering for the past few hours. During that time I'd read more about spells and potions than I'd ever wanted to. We'd found four other candidates for our Zaubertrank, so far. I reached for another book. At least it kept my mind busy, so I wouldn't think of other things… other people… Nick. Dammit. I was doing it again. I sighed heavily as I turned the page and hummed Carrie Underwood's warnings about Nick.

"You better take it from me.
That boy is like a disease.
You run and you try and you're tryin' to hide,
And you're wondering why you can't get free.

He's like a curse, he's like a drug.
You'll get addicted to his love.
You wanna get out, but he's holdin' you down,
'Cause you can't live without one more touch.

He's the devil in disguise, a snake with blue eyes,
And he only comes out at night.
Gives you feelings that you don't want to fight.
You better run for your life…"

"I think the antidote is about ready." Rosalee said after her long silence, halting my humming. I'd almost forgotten she was still in the room.

We crowded around Rosalee's table as she prepared for the last ingredient. With a shaky hand she attempted to add a few drops of a clear liquid to the flask, but they made it onto the table instead. The caustic liquid sizzled as the finish on the wood dissolved underneath it.

"Hey, look at that. Multiple uses," Monroe commented and Rosalee gave him a disparaging glare. She steadied her hand on the final drops, and the liquid in the flask changed from opaque to lavender. There were quite a few lavender potions out there. Perhaps that made it a lucky charm.

"How do we get it in him?" asked Nick. He tried to grab my hand, but I moved it quickly. Monroe seemed pleased.

Rosalee picked up an instrument that looked more like a torture device than anything. "With a nez-soufflet."

I translated the French. "Nose bellows?"

Rosalee nodded as she demonstrated. "You put these prongs into the victim's nostrils and push down on the plunger."

"You know, I don't know Hank all that well," Monroe said as he turned toward Nick, "but how the hell are you going to convince him this is something that's good for him?"

"Let's just see if it works first," Nick replied with a shake of his head.

"The only way we'll know if it works is if we try it," replied Rosalee as she bottled the liquid from the flask. "We should administer it on the sergeant first since his symptoms are milder. If it works for him, then it should work for your partner."

"Do we have time?" asked Nick. "Hank could be with Adalind by now."

"Rosalee sighed. "I'd rather test it on the sergeant before trying it on Hank. With his symptoms it could do more harm than good if it doesn't work."

"Hopefully we can convince the sergeant to take the antidote," I said with a small sigh. "We just won't mention he's going to be a guinea pig."

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

Monroe and I rode together in my car and Nick and Rosalee took Nick's Toyota. Monroe thought it best if Nick and I remained as far apart as possible. I couldn't blame him. Hopefully the antidote for Nick's co-workers was fast and simple, so we could get to work on our own.

Monroe drove while I thumbed through the book of spells that held the one Adalind had said she'd used on Nick and me. I was still looking for others that had the same ingredients just in case she was lying. My floorboard held a mini library with three other books, including the one with Hank's Zaubertrank. I'd grabbed that one just in case.

"I know you're trying to fight the Zaubertrank," Monroe said as he followed behind Nick.

"I'm trying really hard, but…" It was best not to finish that sentence. I let out a short breath as Monroe reached for my hand.

"We'll have you guys cured up soon enough," Monroe assured me.

Part of me didn't want to be cured. I looked up from my book and then longingly at the Toyota in front of us. I wanted to be sitting beside Nick. My eyes closed briefly as I pushed hard against my thoughts. It wasn't real. No matter how many times I chanted it, my brain was happy to disagree. Boy, it sure was close to real, though. Alice Cooper's 'Poison' came to me and I hummed it softly while forcing the thoughts of Nick away.

"I wanna love you, but I better not touch.
I wanna hold you, but my senses tell me to stop.
I wanna kiss you, but I want it too much.
I wanna taste you, but your lips are venomous poison.
You're poison runnin' through my veins…"

The Zaubertrank was just poison, it was… It was powerful and it was driving me crazy. I opened my eyes and glanced over at Monroe. No, this was what was real. This was love, pure and simple. I held on to that thought as we continued down the road.

We arrived at a brick building and followed Nick to the sergeant's apartment. For a moment we stood in front of a white door on the left of a long hallway.

"Umm, isn't it a bit extemporaneous, you know, to just show up like this?" Monroe asked Nick. "I mean, how are we gonna approach the subject of curing him? 'Cause I don't think it's going to go over so well, you know, if we ask him if we can come in and stick that thing up his nose. It's kind of a strange request, man."

Nick scoffed. "I'll figure out something to say."

"I mean, I'm sure having four people at his door is going to look strange enough as it is, you know?"

Nick shook his head and knocked loudly on the door, rattling the gold apartment number sixteen that was nailed to its center.

"Hey, Wu, it's Nick," he called out.

A muffled response came from inside. "Nick? Is that you?"

"Yeah, open up the door, man."

"Uh, I can't right now," the voice mumbled out a reply. "I'm in the middle of dinner."

Nick and I both looked at each other.

"What are you eating?" Nick asked with concern.

With the things Nick had mentioned this guy munching on lately, God only knows what dinner was.

"Fiber," came out his reply followed by manic laughter.

"Oh, that can't be good," I said. "We need to get in there."

The laughter changed into heavy coughing. Nick looked panicked and he slammed his body into the door like a battering ram, breaking it open.

The four of us rushed in, witnessing the sergeant on all fours in the middle of his living room, coughing profusely as bits of his white shag carpeting fell from his mouth.

"Oh, my God," Rosalee cried as we rushed toward him. "Get him on the couch! I hope we're not too late!"

Sergeant Coughs-a-Lot was now gasping for breath. We grabbed him and hoisted him quickly across the room to his blue couch while Rosalee filled the torture device with the antidote. As we remained in position, Rosalee swiftly came forward with her tool in hand.

"Okay, hold him down," she instructed as the sergeant pulled against us like he had before at the spice shop.

"Oh, God. Here we go again," Monroe muttered as it took all three of us to keep him still.

"Pull his head back," said Rosalee as she positioned the device inside the sergeant's nose, pushing the plunger in while it hissed out the antidote.

Immediately the sergeant bowed up in response like a fishing rod. He raised half a foot off the couch then fell back down. He bowed up again, but this time his skin turned as bright a crimson as the devil himself. He remained bowed up this time.

Monroe turned to Rosalee. "Is that supposed to happen?"

"I hope so." Rosalee softly breathed the words as her brow furrowed. She didn't sound too convinced.

Nick grabbed my hand and this time I let him. The sergeant's eyes rolled back in his head adding to the demonic effect.

My mouth gaped slightly at the sergeant's reaction to the antidote. "How long is he going to be this way?"

"I-I don't know." Rosalee's tone didn't change and her mouth mirrored mine.

"Well, how do we know if he's cured?" Nick questioned right as the sergeant finally collapsed down again and the red faded.

I let go of Nick's hand and stood up from my crouched position. The sergeant inhaled deeply and then seemed to come back out of it. He spat out the remains of the carpet and opened his eyes, looking utterly confused at four people standing over him around his couch.

"Where'd you guys come from?" The sergeant's voice was horse and dry as he moved his eyes around to each of us. "Is this a dream?" He looked down, wide-eyed. "Why am I in my underwear?" he asked bewildered as he covered himself with his hands, like that was going to help. We looked away. "Uh, this is a little embarrassing. Excuse me!" He shot up from the couch and quickly ran off to a back room before any of us could reply.

"I think…" Monroe paused as he gestured a hand toward where the sergeant ran off to, "it worked."

"Yeah, and fast," Rosalee agreed.

I breathed out a sigh. "One down, one to go."

Nick nodded. "Right. Time to get it to Hank." He pulled out his cell phone. We listened as he talked to his partner. Hank was already at Adalind's for dinner, Nick told us after he hung up.

"Let's go before Hank's goose is cooked!" I said as we left the sergeant's apartment without another word.

A/N: This chapter is pretty much straight Grimm story from "Love Sick."

One more chapter today. (: