AN: I had watched Grimm from the first episode, fascinated by the concept. But, as what happens with most things, life intervened and I simply stopped watching it. Right around season 5 however, I happened to catch an advert for an upcoming episode and was immediately surprised to see Nick and Adalind together, what with their violent past. I decided to start watching it again and quickly remembered why I had liked the show in the first place. I was immediately struck by the relationship that had blossomed between Nick and Adalind. I never had an issue with Juliet and quite honestly had liked their pairing, but there was something unique about what these once enemies turned lovers had that I wanted to explore.

Anyhow, adding to that, I really wanted to see a prolonged scene of that night when Adalind and Kelly return home. With the way that Nick expressed his pain at their absence, I thought that it would be nice to see him reflect on the change their presence (especially Adalind's) had on his life.

The following is a manifestation of that musing.

If asked in the years before he came into his abilities, Nick would say that he wasn't much of a thinker.

He was more of an action type of guy.

In the period since though, he's learned how to reflect and even now when he knows he should be asleep, he uses this time to ruminate quietly in the predawn hours.

His current focus of attention is the warm blonde curled up against him.

Adalind.

At one point her name used to evoke a myriad of negative emotions: hatred, repulsion, fear and more than a modicum of attraction; the latter of which usually filling him with shame.

Now though when he thinks of her he is filled with a sense of rightness and a level of happiness he is not quite sure he's felt before.

He'd lived a rather transient life; moving from city to city and the home that he'd built with Juliet was the first physical permanence that he'd ever really had. But, even though they'd lived together for so long he never saw her the way he sees Adalind. In hindsight, he realizes that he and Juliet were just great roommates. Roommates with benefits, yes, but roommates none the less.

He'd never deny that the early years weren't good to them though. He'd felt that they'd had a solid relationship built on love and trust and understanding. Which was why he sometimes questioned what the bigger surprise was: Him finding out that he was a Grimm or that at the first real sign of trouble, the bedrock of their stable relationship would fissure so drastically that they could never come back from it.

It also didn't help that the weight of his denied proposal only further facilitated the erosion of their bond in the later years.

Maybe that's why he sees this new chapter of his life so differently. Yes, he and Adalind had a baby to consider, but he wasn't bogged down by the same expectations of a white picket fence and marriage now.

Somehow the woman next to him had made him want it all on his own (even though they didn't technically need it) and it was all because within a very short amount of time she'd become his home. She was his lover, the mother of his child as well as the woman that held his heart and aside from Kelly - the one person that kept him tethered to his sanity most days.

And while he would never regret what he had with Juliet (she was his first love) he feels like what he has with Adalind is so much deeper and more mature. Perhaps, he thinks it's because while they had learned each other at their worst, they've loved each other at their best.

She sighs next to him, snuggling in deeper under the curve of his neck, one knee bent and sandwiched between his own legs. The male in him loves that he can satisfy his girl so well that even before her skinned had cooled, she had slipped into unconsciousness. Her body so sated and relaxed that it had no other arguments.

Now, as she slumbers her soft breaths fanning across his skin send tingles of desire up his spine.

He's just had her, repeatedly at that, but it seems like his lust for her is always just simmering under the surface. It might be bordering on unhealthy- his obsession with her, but he can't help himself. He's never wanted someone as much as he wants her. And as far as obsessions go, it's not a bad one to be addicted to.

Sometimes all it takes is her signature grin before he's grabbing her and clamoring for the nearest flat surface. More so, it's the profound look of love and adoration that fills her eyes when she looks at him that fuels his hunger, igniting his own affections for her.

Pulling her in closer, he observes not for the first time how well she fits into him. Even in their early days when they did nothing but share a bed, night time ministrations would sometimes find them wrapped around each other. Heads tucked under chins, legs resting over hips. Their bodies would somehow find a symmetry under the guise of night that daytime would never allow.

He would find himself conflicted by how much he enjoyed her warm body tucked against him back then. Juliet hadn't been gone that long and he would sometimes excuse his wanderings as a need for human contact.

But, secretly, he knew better.

Truth was, and he would never admit this to her, but his hands would often linger over her lush curves. His blood thrumming in the knowledge that they existed because she had carried his child. That he had planted a seed deep in her belly that had changed and sculpted the very topography of her body.

He used to subtlety run his hands over her. She was just so femininely soft and luscious that he couldn't keep them to himself sometimes. Her arms, legs, hips, the indents behind her knees were all prey to his roving digits. Enthralled by its golden colour, he'd even find himself twirling strands of her blonde hair between his fingers. The hue nearly blinding in the early morning sun.

She was so utterly beautiful as she slept that he found it hard most days to leave their bed.

Their bed.

Their room.

That was another thing.

There was never any real conversation about it, but after that first night at the loft, that's exactly what it had become. Their bed.

It was almost surreal how quickly and almost effortlessly these once enemies had settled into a life of domesticity.

He loved finding out about all the eccentricities that made her uniquely her. Little things like how under her lawyer veneer, she was a complete romantic and that instead of finding legal briefings and articles on her nightstand, her reading preference of choice favoured bare chested Fabio like apparitions and damsels in distress.

He'd learned that without fail there would always be socks bundled at the bottom of the blanket because though her feet were always cold, she would toe them off in her sleep. That she hated bacon, but loved the fake bits on her salad. That she hummed when she cooked and was embarrassed that she had to wear reading glasses (which he personally found to be sexy as hell)

He was surprised to find that she wasn't as complex as he had first imagined. Like most people all she truly wanted in life was to be loved. Her want of which had led her to most if not all of the trouble that tainted her past. Her undoing was that she sought the emotion in the wrong people. Those like her mother and Sean, ended up twisting her feelings and hardening her heart.

It's why he was surprised that with all their history, she gave him her love so easily. In turn he cherished the fact and knew that he would not do anything to tarnish it. She had gifted him with something precious and she in turn became just that to him.

Precious.

And while he had always been attracted to her, she had always been off limits. First because he was in a relationship and later because of what fate would make them do to each other.

But, now she was so close and she was all his.

He strums a finger along her neck and shoulders noting that his passion is branded on her fair skin like a lovers tattoo. It thrills the Grimm in him to know that he can tame his wild Hexenbiest.

Who would have ever known that their inherent dichotomous natures could be thwarted by the simple act of love?

Maybe, this was the way it was always supposed to be because as much as he feels triumph at having just taken her, at the same time his instinct to protect her wars within. The sensation so much stronger than with anyone else in his life.

He'd always seen himself as a fearless protector, it's why he went into law enforcement, but there is something about Adalind's sweetness and physicality that makes him feel like he wants to wrap her up and hide her away from the world.

He runs his hands down her arms, twining his fingers with her's. He marvels at how dainty her hands looked encapsulated by his and how his roughhewn ones juxtaposed against her own smooth palms were almost erotic in the feel they created.

Her sheer petiteness calls to that ancient force within him to protect one's own.

Though right now, it's a force rising from his lower half that calls to claim her once again.

He places a whisper of a kiss on her head, before dragging his lips along her hairline, down and across her cheeks, before honing in on his final destination.

Her lips.

'Mmmm….." she trills softly as she gently comes to wake.

He nips at the soft flesh, his hand dropping to the curve of her bottom and then slowly down the back of one leg, lifting the limb higher, and pressing his want against her naked flesh.

"Nick…." She breathes.

"Yes?" He asks, his wide smirk evident as he continues his assault.

He can feel her hips begin to undulate under him as if subconscious to her still foggy thoughts.

He knows she won't put up much of a protest, not just because she loves that he is dominant in this part of their lives and has confessed as much on several occasions, but because he can feel her growing arousal from his attentions.

"Nick, ohhhh God, Nick…" She stutters and he knows she's close as her hips rise with increasing speed. Months of love making have taught him just the right angle and depth to get her there.

Just as she crests her peak, he pulls her thigh higher, allowing himself to slide inside, knowing that the deep penetration coupled with her still trembling walls will likely have him fighting not to finish too soon.

"Fffffuu-"She gasps at his quick and forceful thrusts and he smiles knowing she's probably as far gone as he is. He can already feel her clamping down and the sensation rushes through him as he drops his lips to her neck, softly biting into the flesh as he spills himself within her.

They gently rock together, each attempting to prolong the other's pleasure.

When she begins to squirm, he slowly withdraws, rising from the bed and walking the few feet to the bathroom so he can get a washcloth to clean them up.

Upon his return, he takes note of her unabashed nakedness as she lays sprawled out on their bed. Her exposed flesh a feast for his eyes.

She's completely spent he can see.

He drops a knee to the bed, propping her thigh against his own so that he can remove the remnants of their coupling.

"There's something so primal about seeing his seed in his woman," he thinks, even as he wipes the evidence away.

And while Adalind went on birth control soon after they'd become intimate, not for the first time does the thought that he'd love another child trickle through his mind.

He knows it's too soon and she'd probably laugh at him. Kelly was still a baby and nursing at that, but ever since they become a couple, he's warmed to the idea of being able to see Adalind through a pregnancy and not just step in at the tail end.

He wants to be there from the minute they know there's a new Burkhardt on the way, to the late night cravings and morning sickness. He's also especially keen on making good use of the increased libido that he's read so much about. He'll take the mood swings just to have Adalind grab him and ride him to her heart's content.

He's getting ahead of himself though.

For now he simply wants to relish in the fact that his family has been returned to him. That he can finally put behind him the unrelenting agony and fear that overwhelmed him whilst she and Kelly had remained in Renard's clutches.

He looks forward to the first real night of sleep he's had in weeks. For aside from the stress of his family being gone, it felt like a dishonor to sleep in their bed without her.

Rising, he lifts her legs, pulling the blanket up over her. A blissful smile gracing her lips as her eyelids flutter closed. Her pale lashes resting on her cheek once more. He runs a finger along the slope of her delicate nose before dropping a kiss on her forehead.

He'll let her rest for now.

His libido is sated for the time being and she needs it, especially as Kelly will wake in a few hours wanting what only his mother can provide. Taking a peek into the nearby crib, he rubs a hand over the baby's round tummy. He smiles faintly when he sees that his son's face is just as relaxed as his mother's. His little one probably more than grateful to be back in his own bed as well.

Chucking the washcloth into the hamper, he crosses the room and joins her under the covers. He pulls her close and they once again return to the physical familiarity from earlier in the night.

He looks up at the ceiling praying to whatever entity that will listen that he will do whatever he needs to keep his family together. He'd lost his father, aunt, mother and even Juliet, but the pain of losing the two people in the room with him was an experience he knows he could never survive again.

"You're thinking too loud, babe."

He chuckles at the soft murmur from beneath him.

She raises up, placing a hand on his chest for leverage and plants a sweet kiss on the underside of his chin. Tilting her head up, a gentle smile teasing at the corner of her lips, she says, "I love you, but go to sleep."

He laughs once more before hugging her tight and pulling her back down.

Closing his eyes he thanks God and all the powers that be for bringing her to him.

AN: This was my first Grimm fic. I hope you liked it, but even if you didn't let me know in the comments. I have the beginnings of 2 others that I may flesh out to full stories depending on the audience's persuasion :)