Chapter Text
She comes around the corner, a blonde with a leggy, slender build encased in a black sheath dress with a clutch purse and heels. She’s wearing a beige wool coat, her hair rolling down over the front. Her face is obscured by shadow.
He’s not in uniform but standing in front of a police car with his badge and gun visible is a dead give away that he is in law enforcement. He can see Hank thumbing through the sodas in the convenience store, but he knows what an approach looks like, knows when he is about to be accosted with a specific intent in mind.
Yet she is too well-dressed, better than a woman should be in this neighborhood, for him to classify her as a threat and so he waits and watches. She doesn’t waver.
She gets to within a few feet of him and stops, giving him a clear once over. He straightens, “Something I can do for you Miss?”
He sees a flicker of a smile pass over her mouth and she turns, the streetlight finally catching her full in the face.
He freezes and blurts out, “You!”
Her smile widens into a grin and an eyebrow quirks up. A very familiar, very blonde eyebrow.
The Hexenbiest looks back at him before saying contemptuously, “The name’s Adalind Schade, Mr. Burkhardt. Or rather Detective Burkhardt I suppose.”
He stiffens as her cool gaze drops to his waist and lingers over his shield. She sways forward, edging closer in a prowl but still nothing he could classify as overtly threatening.
“Stay where you are.”
She stops and smirks, “So, the rumors are true. Portland has a new Grimm. And not just any Grimm but a new baby Grimm with a badge and a gun of his own.”
He glances back over to Hank but Hank appears fuzzy, the air distorted. He glances back at her and asks sharply, “What did you do?”
She rolls her eyes, “It’s just a time distortion field.” She pulls a necklace out from where it had slipped under her dress’ neckline and twirls it around a finger. It’s an antique looking amulet, intricate and shining silver with a faint blue light emitting from it. Sounding bored, she says, “It’s got a proximity feature. All you have to do is walk past out about five feet and you’re out, time resumes at its normal pace.” She lets the amulet drop, “I just wanted to talk undisturbed for a moment.”
He looks at her incredulously, “And this is how you choose to do it?”
She glances around, checking his expression before quirking another little smile, conceding, “Maybe this is a bit much.” She shrugs it off, “Hexenbiest, remember?”
He just gives her a flat look back, “So since you went to the trouble, what do you want?”
She takes a step closer and he tenses. She sways forward and he holds himself steady, feeling the air charge. Gooseflesh pops up over his skin and his heart rate picks up but it doesn’t feel like fear. She tilts her head to the side and the shadows recede, painting her brow golden. He sees the delicate tips of her nostrils flare as though catching a scent.
“I wanted to take your measure.” He blinks and she settles back but does not move further away. She continues to study him, “I’ve never met a Grimm before.” Her gaze travels down, “You’re not exactly what I pictured.”
He rears back, “That’s it? You’re not even going to throw in some threats for fun?”
She gives a one shouldered shrug and her lip twitches to the side, “The night is young.” She pauses, “And you know as well as I do that some things are better left unsaid. Besides I’m sure there will be many opportunities in the future for such courtesies.” And she smiles again, sharp and intensely brief, the light barely catching the gleam of her teeth.
He is baffled. “That’s it?”
“For now.”
“Is this like a truce?”
“We’d have to be fighting to need to call a truce in the first place. I wanted to preempt that.”
“I know what you are.”
“And?”
“You’re a Hexenbiest! Why should I trust anything you say?”
She gives him an incredulous look, “I’m here now aren’t I? Have I raised even a finger to you? Out of the two of us, you’re the one named for death. You do know that, right? Hexenbiests may be known for manipulating and deceiving others, but your kind is the one that’s known for murdering.”
He is taken aback at that.
Her head quirks to the side, “You think being a Grimm just gives you super powers? You get to finally see the monsters for what they really are now? You don’t think it comes at a price?” She drops a glance down his front, frankly assessing and letting him know she finds him wanting. “You think this a one way street?”
She steps back and her face ripples but mostly stays human looking. It happens in the blink of the eye, there and gone before he really has time to process it.
He rears back in case she decides to attack him, but she just looks at him. “You ever wonder what we see when we’re looking back at you? You can’t imagine it’s a good look you’ve got going on with the way you’re leaving Eisbibers running for the hills like that.”
“So why even approach? Why take the risk?”
She shrugs again, “I was curious and you’re new. I figured this was as good an opportunity as any.”
“Opportunity?”
She rolls her eyes, “To try something different.” Seeing he still doesn’t understand, she continues, “The Wesen community is an old one. And by old I mean set in its ways, resistant to change, you know, occasionally forgetful of what century its in.” She gives him another once over, “And considering that the last time we met you were checking me out, I thought there was a pretty decent chance you wouldn’t attack first.”
He flusters and starts to deny it, “I wasn-“
But she cuts him off, “Save it, baby Grimm.”
Annoyed he says, “My name’s Nick.”
An eyebrow quirks and he can see he has surprised her somehow. “Well, then,” she says and levels him with a challenging look. She extends a hand and looks at him expectantly, “If we’re going to be on a first name basis, my name is Adalind.”
Warily he examines her back before reluctantly meeting her in the middle. He is a little surprised to feel her warm skin against his, like the illusion would break and he would be left grasping a skeletal hand as he erupted in boils or something horrible. They shake and he concludes, “This is almost the strangest meeting I have ever had.”
She snorts but doesn’t disagree, merely disengaging and backing away.
“See ya around Nick,” she says and shoots a wave over her shoulder. The air ripples as she retreats and he gets a sudden rush of sound as the pace of normal life swoops back in to fill the void. He has to blink a few times to adjust. He starts to call after her, to say what he doesn’t know but he stops and changes his mind.
To his left, he hears, “Hey Nick, you okay?” and Nick blinks again to see his partner standing next to him, holding out a steaming cup of coffee.
He manages to mumble something back that must sound halfway coherent because Hank lets it slide and they crawl back into the vehicle. But for the rest of the night, Nick has trouble keeping focused as his mind draws back to turn her words over again in his head.
He will see her again.