Chapter 2: The Morning

When she came to, it was morning. Late morning, it felt, from the way the sun was reaching deep into the room through the windows. She was still on the couch in Monroe and Rosalee's living room, but she was lying across it now, with a thick green blanket covering her body. She sat up and was surprised to see Nick curled up in the same spot where she last saw him. He appeared to be asleep and, just like Adalind, wrapped in a blanket.

Adalind pulled herself off the couch. She was hungry again. A little kick in her belly spurred her on towards the kitchen, where she found Monroe and Rosalee sitting at the table, with a huge pot of coffee and two steaming mugs.

"You're up!" said Rosalee. She quickly looked over Adalind's shoulder and continued in a hushed tone, "is Nick still asleep?"

Adalind nodded and slid into an empty chair. Monroe picked up a paper bag from the kitchen counter and offered it to her. "Muffins," he said. The grogginess of his voice suggested that he had not been awake that long either.

Adalind dove into her blueberry muffin and Rosalee told her about the rest of the night. Trubel, it turned out, had been working with Chavez all along, and along with the FBI team, have gone on to track down Meisner's whereabouts. Sean and Hank went back to the police headquarters to deal with the tremendous body count left in Nick's neighborhood. Including Juliette's.

"Nick will have to go into the precinct pretty soon too," said Monroe. "But we thought we'd let him have some rest before facing that."

"How are they going to explain what happened?" Adalind asked, licking crumbs off her fingers.

"I'm guessing something along the lines of ex-convict's revenge on cop. Killed his girlfriend, mom and neighbors to try and kill Nick, etc. etc." Monroe said, shaking his head. "The captain's got it all covered. Poor Nick. I cannot imagine the hell he is going through now."

Adalind felt sorry for Nick. She never really liked him, well, it never occurred to her that she would-he was a grimm. But over the past few days, she had come to see him as a genuinely good man. His gentleness towards her had been a surprise, and quite frankly, at times she had not known how to react to it. No one had ever taken care of her like this before. Well, even if he was only so out of concern for his child and not so much for her, Adalind was grateful.

The three were still sitting around the breakfast table, each lost in their own thoughts, when Nick walked into the kitchen.

"Nick," said Rosalee tenderly. "Come sit down and have something to eat."

Nick made no eye contact with anyone. "I'll be at the precinct." Without another word, he grabbed his jacket and left.

Adalind moved into Monroe and Rosalee's guest room that afternoon, as Bud's family was slated to return. Bud even sent a few pies along with Adalind's belongings, and she repaid him for his kindness with a peck on his cheek. Adalind laughed as the poor eisbeiber turned bright red and almost passed out.

"What happens now?" Bud had asked Adalind before he drove home. Adalind had given him a sly smile and said, "Do I think Nick and I would move in together and get married? I'm inclined to go with Rosalee on that one."

But as she sat on the bed in the guestroom, she wondered how else she could go on. She had no job, no money, no family and no roof over her head. But she was scared to approach Nick in his fragile state. What was she going to ask? "Hey, your girlfriend just died. And I had a lot to do with it. Let's move in together?"

She shook her head and laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it. But then realized that this was the only logical lifeline at this moment. She laid down and laughed some more.

Over the next three days, Adalind rested at Monrosalee's. She did her best to keep up with the hunt for Diana through Monroe, who was kept up to speed by Hank. But there has been no news from the Trubel and Chavez team. Nick had gone radio silent and Monroe had to pry for information on him from Hank. Hank, however, seemed to be as in the in dark about Nick as Monroe was. According to Hank, Nick had only been coming in to answer questions for the "official" homicide investigation, but have mostly stayed away from work, with the blessing of the Captain. A worried Monroe had been over to Nick's house to check on him a couple of times, but he was never home.

By the end of the third afternoon, Nick showed up on the doorstep. "It's done. The memorial service for Juliette will be this coming weekend."

It was weird for Adalind to sit down with Nick, Rosalee and Monroe for dinner. Since she had announced her pregnancy to Nick, she had not had any down time with the grimm. Now that all immediate threats were eliminated, her alliance with Nick and his friends has become a voluntary decision. Adalind decided to breach the topic of her future. Now was as good a time as any.

Nick simply replied, "I'm selling the house. I can't live there anymore, not with everything that has happened. I'll look for a new place with two bedrooms and you'll come live with me for now. We'll figure the details out later after the baby is born."

And just like that, it was settled.