AN: Last one.

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"Close your eyes."

"You know, I helped build half of it," Nick pointed out.

"Nick!"

"Nick, close your eyes," Rosalee commanded, and Nick, because it was Rosalee and not Adalind with her pouty, kissable mouth, complied.

"Fine. My eyes are closed."

"Cover them with your hands," Adalind added and Nick heaved a big sigh and dutifully put his hands over his eyes.

"Mama," he heard Kelly say.

"Just a few more moments, Kell-bell, and then we're going to show Daddy the big reveal."

His son had said his first word a few weeks ago. Nick had argued it was George, Adalind had sworn it was juice and both had felt the disappointment of not being at the top of Kelly's list to articulate. He had started adding more to his vocabulary slowly, but in the last couple of weeks he had amassed about five words, among them "mama" with fair regularity and "dada" every once in a while as he became more comfortable with it. He would celebrate his first birthday in three weeks, a milestone Adalind and Rosalee were intensely planning and one that Nick was trying to remain unsentimental about. It was hard though. He was a father to a one-year-old boy, a future Grimm if Eve's strange pronunciation at the station all those weeks ago was to be believed. He had survived a lot, already, in his short life, and Nick was hard-pressed not to remember his mother's words to him. Don't do what I did. Don't leave the people you love. He had done his best to stick to them.

Now he was about to set foot in the remodeled loft, the place where probably in another few weeks Kelly would take his first steps. It would do for another few years, if they made it that long, Nick thought, but he didn't tell Adalind that he had no intention of raising Kelly here with her indefinitely. They would get a house one day. A yard, in a neighborhood with other children. Hopefully one day Monroe and Rosalee's children. He allowed himself that hope that they would still be together to raise their son, but he didn't dare make any grand overtures. Things were still complicated between them—She was going back to work in a few weeks, and Nick wasn't sure how the change would affect them, and this…this right here felt like a big enough overture anyway.

Instead, he stepped carefully out of the elevator, guided by Adalind, Monroe and Rosalee hovering close with Kelly, and kept his eyes covered until she told him to open them.

He did and gawked at what laid before him. He turned, taking it all in, mouth still slightly open registering the changes big and small in the loft, and Adalind's hopeful face.

"What do you think?" she said, bouncing lightly on her toes.

"Wow," Nick breathed, and Rosalee and Adalind erupted into smiles.

"You guys did…all of this?"

"No, I helped too," Monroe groused. "After you put up the walls and stripped the floors, guess who got stuck with the rest of it?"

"You like it?" Rosalee asked, and Nick surveyed the room again. It was beautiful. It looked like something that belonged in one of Adalind's better homes and garden type magazines rather than the loft in an abandoned paint factory that housed a Grimm, a suppressed Hexenbiest and their lovechild. And despite the picture-ready touches, it was warm and inviting. The trim above them had been painted, the sterile kitchen counter replaced with beautiful warm cabinetry and countertop. There were barstools now along one side, updated kitchen appliances, and a designated dining space with a new table and chairs in wood finish that matched the cabinets, and area rug that featured colors sampled in the paint on the walls and the finishing touches. There was a living space now, with a sofa, a loveseat, tables, chair and built-ins filled with books Adalind had collected. There was another throw rug, rather shaggy and soft and he could already imagine his sons squeals of pleasure when he ran his chubby fingers through it. The single bed Nick had first stayed in was gone, and a beautiful hall bureau stood in its place with a lamp and ceramic bowl. Not much had changed with the bathroom so Nick didn't bother to look there. Instead he moved forward into the space taking in the warmth of the place, and allowed Adalind to loop her arm through his and point out certain things in the loft. The ceramic bowl on the bureau was for his keys, wallet, and badge—a place to drop them off first thing, and pick them up last on his way out the door, she told him.

There were pictures of his mom, he saw, on one of the shelves and for a moment he was too overwhelmed to speak, listening as Adalind also pointed out pictures of Monroe and Rosalee, Hank, and several of their son, but, not, he noted, any of her. There was room for some of Nick's books, if he had any he wanted to add, and he nodded. She glanced back at Rosalee and continued, and Nick found at some point in the tour he had linked his fingers through hers and was holding her hand tightly. They stopped at the newly created room for Kelly, an actual squared-off, walled-off, space with not only four walls, but a small closet and even a door separating him from his parent's room. Nick had done his best to create a separate room for Kelly, one that allowed his parents some privacy for themselves, but he had not seen any of what Adalind and Rosalee had planned to do with it once he had finished until now. They had painted the giant metal shutters of the window overhead a soft baby blue, and had done his room up in a police/law enforcement theme. His room was carpeted wall to wall, and held his crib, a dresser, a changing table and the glider-rocker Nick had helped Adalind bring up here.

"It looks great," he said, noting a police-themed mobile above the crib and a light on the dresser that looked like a police berry. "It's really great," he said again, and Adalind gripped his hand tighter in excitement.

"And now, last but not least, the master bedroom."

And now, there actually was one in the loft. There was still the room up the stairs, the anteroom, that he had convinced Adalind to make into a guest room or study instead of their room. He had been worried about being so far from his son. Instead, he had created his son's bedroom, and packed a little soundproofing where he could in the shared wall.

They turned to their left and Nick stopped short, once again taken by surprise by what he spied in front of them. A new bed, bedside tables, bureau and mirror, a chair in a corner, a bench at the end of the bed, and the metal shutters on the remaining two windows on this side of the loft painted in a sante fe red shade, accentuating the soft bed linens. Artwork dotted the walls here as well; they dotted most of the loft, Nick realized.

"What do you think?" Adalind asked again, and Nick turned to her and realized that at some point in the tour Monroe and Rosalee had dropped off. He heard them in the kitchen, and he took a minute to enjoy a private moment between them.

"It's…amazing," he said, pulling her to him. "It feels like a home now. You did a great job." She thrummed with contented excitement and they both surveyed the room. "How much did all this cost, again?"

"Ugh, you don't want to know."

He suspected she was right. She had been given a substantial signing bonus as an incentive to come back to her firm, and he suspected he was witnessing where most of it had gone.

"Besides, everything should be paid off in a couple of weeks. I've already got my first six cases lined up, and Berman came through with a big, fat, raise as promised. So we'll be okay," she assured. We. He remembered now long ago thinking when everything had become his and hers. Now it was ours and theirs. We. Us.

He rested his chin on the top of her head and sighed.

"Oh my god, what did he say, I can't stand it any longer!" A voice called up to them and Adalind choked back a laugh.

"You think it's good?" Adalind asked in a lowered voice and Nick nodded emphatically.

"He says it's good!" Adalind hollered back.

"Good, does that mean we can eat now?" Monroe called. "I'm starving."

"Yes, let's go eat," Nick agreed.

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"Someone's feeling pretty proud of herself." Nick remarked after seeing Adalind strut past him with a smug smile on her face.

"Yes she is," Adalind said, getting into bed beside him. "I knew you would see that I was right. This placed just needed a little brightening up."

"This was a major overhaul," Nick retorted.

"Well, considering what I had to work with, I think it came off quite well?"

"You're just fishing for compliments," he replied. She flashed him a cheeky grin.

"What, no "amazing" or "incredible" or "obscenely talented" to go with smart, beautiful, and sweet?"

"Conceited?" Nick suggested, but he pulled her in for a kiss as he said it, then settled back against his pillow with a groan as it got a bit out of hand.

"How long has Kelly been down?" Adalind asked breaking away.

"A couple of hours."

"Good, we've got some time, then," she said, and slipped her fingers around the hem of her shirt (still his shirt) and pulled it over her head. Nick allowed his hands to trace and pleasure, taking the time to enjoy to enjoy her every breathy moan and sigh and not about every other time where they wound up like this, and he would inevitably think of the first time they did this, when it had been her, disguised as Juliette, and then the second time, when it had been Juliette as her. Both of those times had been incredible, but he could remember thinking how it exciting it had been that first time. He didn't know if it was because he had been surprised at how forward and aggressive he thought Juliette was being, or because he had like the forwardness and aggression. She was still forward and aggressive, and their romps together were generally quite athletic and satisfying. He felt desire lurch south when she arched her back and things quickly intensified from there.

They both lay spent in the dark, breathing heavily to catch their breaths, sheets a tangled, sweaty mess around them.

"You were quiet when I showed you what we did with the bookshelves. I hope I didn't upset you with that pic of your mom," she said lying on her side listening to him breathe.

Nick shook his head. "It's good. Really. It just hit me for a moment, but I'm okay. It's fine," he assured, and she nodded, running her finger up and down his arm. "Although," he said, rolling on his side to face her. "There were no pictures of you on there."

Adalind shrugged. "Didn't have any. I mean, what would I do, have Rosalee take one of me. That would seem too staged or forward."

"Forward?" Adalind shrugged again.

"There should at least be one of you and Kelly," Nick said.

"There should be one of all us," Adalind countered, "but I felt nervous enough putting those out there what with everything that could happen."

Nick nodded in understanding. There was still a risk. He was still a Grimm after all, and she and his son were still someone important to him. Not having any personal identifying effects in the loft were better, but he realized he had missed them.

"We'll take one the next time we go to the park," he said and Adalind smiled. The watched each other silently.

"I've been thinking about us," Adalind began, and Nick straightened. "We don't need—we're not—we're not one of those couples who need to make some big statement about our intentions or anything. I mean, this is enough right? I mean, we know what we mean, don't we?"

Nick shifted his head on the pillow, and reached for a strand of golden hair. That she had basically had the same thought as he had was no longer surprising. They actually had quite similar thought processes at times, same humor, and quick, biting wit.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Nick said, and Adalind sighed in relief. She's in love with you, you know. He felt like he might be in love with her too, but he let go of the hair and folded his arms under his chest.

"You like me," Nick teased with a half-smile, and Adalind rolled her eyes in response. Nick felt the other side of his lip curl and stared back. He raised an eyebrow, daring her.

She sighed theatrically.

"Maybe a little," she said mischievously.

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AN:

Thank you to everybody who commented and favorited. Really enjoyed sharing it with you. If you like this one I am working on the next saga in the Schade-Burkhardt household. About 3/4 of the way finished, and need to think of a title, but it might serve as something to get us through the winter hiatus (side note: why are they prolonging our suffering by pushing the spring return back a week. Jan 29th? grrrr). If you're interested in reading more let me know.

THE END!