The Beast Within

Chapter 3

Still don't own any of it.

Just to say that we have fully landed in AU territory now.

Nick stepped into the Spice shop, when Monroe called and asked him to come over it hadn't sounded too urgent. But it was always Wesen related when he did so Nick had made sure he got over in good time. He immediately knew that something was up because as soon as he stepped inside Monroe had moved to turn the sign on the door to closed. That was only done if there was something serious to talk about.

'What's going on?' he asked. Monroe and Rosalee glanced at each other and Monroe gestured that Rosalee should speak.

'I had someone in earlier. He was nice, asked about tea. I thought he was sick, but then he woged.' Rosalee said, she looked a little disturbed as she recounted it.

'Okay.' Nick said. That wasn't that surprising really, a lot of Wesen come in here looking for medication that wasn't available in the normal health care system. 'What kind of Wesen was he?'

'Well, that's the thing, man, we don't know,' Monroe said. 'I never saw him, but let me tell you that's not a scent I would have forgotten.'

'That bad huh,' Nick said amusement colouring his voice.

'Nah, just unique. But that's not the strangest thing about it,' Monroe said glancing at Rosalee.

'When woged he just stared at his hands as if he'd never seen them before.' Rosalee said. 'and when he saw me woged he looked terrified and just ran.' She took a deep breath. 'I think that it was his first time.' Monroe stared at her.

'You didn't tell me that.' he said, before pacing the store. 'This is not good.'

'What am I missing here?' Nick asked. Monroe stopped and looked at him, before sighing.

'I keep forgetting that you don't know these things.' He muttered, and Nick tried not to take offence. 'Okay, usually we first woge when we're children early teens at the latest.' Rosalee nodded.

'I was thirteen, and that's pretty late,' she said. 'This guy he must have been eighteen, nineteen.' Nick blinked at that, it was quite a difference.

'So, this is bad.'

'Hell, yeah!' Monroe exclaimed. 'I mean it's bad enough at that age without dealing with that as well.' Rosalee put a calming hand on his arm.

'What we need to do is find him and figure out what is going on.'

'Could it be a spell?' Nick suggested. 'Maybe he's forgotten he's Wesen, like what happened to Julie…' Nick stopped, he's face clouded over with bad memories. Rosalee moved closer to him.

'Oh, Nick…' she said as Nick visibly shock off the memories.

'Whether he needs help or not I'm going to have to find him, and for that I need to know what I'm looking for.' Nick said, and Rosalee gave him a searching look before going back to the counter to collect something.

'Are you ok, man?' Monroe asked.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' Nick said dismissively. Rosalee came back and handed him a piece of paper.

'I drew what I could remember,' she said. Nick glanced down at the drawing and then back up at her. A small smile tugging at his lips.

'Really?' Rosalee scowled at him and snatched back the drawing.

'Not all of us are artists, Mister All-Grimms-can-draw.' This caused a snort of laughter form Monroe, and she turned her scowl on him. Monroe raised his hands in surrender.

'Okay,' Nick said taking the drawing back and turning it over. 'Tell you what, you describe I'll drew.' Rosalee's expression softened.

'Fine.'

Sometime later they all looked down at the finished drawing.

'This is what you saw?' Monroe asked.

'Looks like it,' Rosalee confirmed. Nick turned his head.

'It sort of looks like a…'

'Don't even go there,' Monroe warned him. Rosalee gave them both amused looks.

'Have you seen anything like it in your books,' she asked. Nick frowned as he looked at the picture, before shaking his head.

'Not that I remember, but I'll have look,' he said picking it up and turning to go. Rosalee gave Monroe a significant look and nodded in Nicks direction. Monroe gave her a puzzled look and she narrowed her eyes at him. Monroe sighed.

'Hey, Nick!' he called out just before Nick opened the door, he looked back. 'I was thinking, maybe you could bring the books to my place, then you know, we could look together,' when Nick looked unconvinced Rosalee jumped in.

'I'm the only one that's see him, I could…' she looked at Monroe silently asking for help.

'Erm, yeah, she might see something that you might miss, you know because you haven't seen him.' By the end of it he sounded less certain of himself.

'We could get take out.' Rosalee said brightly. 'Make an evening out of it.'

Nick looked at their hopeful faces, he knew what this was about and he had to admit to himself that he had been distant with them ever since Juliette died. It had been right after they'd tried to cure her and Renard of their obsession with each other. They never even found out if that had worked as Juliette's car had been hit by a drunk driver, that had jumped a red light, on the way home from the Spice shop. The doctors said she'd died instantly. Nick had even snapped at Bud and Monroe after a few weeks of constant enquiries after his wellbeing. The look of hurt on Bud's face had finally brought Nick out of his wallowing but things had never been the same. But the look of hope and concern on Monroe's and Rosalee's face made him sigh. Maybe it was time to get back to some kind of normal and friends were the best way to do it.

'Fine,' he said but pointed at Monroe. 'But your buying.' The look of relief on both their faces told him that it was the right thing to do.

'Absolutely, man, this is going to be so much fun,' Monroe said with the enthusiasm of a puppy, not that Nick would say anything, he'd had to train himself out of dog and wolf jokes long ago. Monroe caught the look Rosalee was giving him. 'But not too much, as this serious, right.' Nick could help but smile as he walked out.

Thanks for reading, please review.

Xander will be back next chapter.

I'm not fully happy with Rosalee in this chapter, her voice isn't quite right. But Monroe is such fun to write!

SSG