Love Potion

By Slytherin Princess

Chapter One

~Nick Burkhardt~

His arm gushed blood down the stained sink and pooled over the yellowed and cracked tiles in the gas station bathroom. Nick stared at his reflection, a bloodied and bruised face stared back at him. A deep cut ran along his hairline, dripping into his black eye and sticking into his stubble, and slipping down his neck. His breath came in short gasps and his head spun as Nick tried to steady himself on the porcelain edge of the sink.

He wanted to call Juliette or Monroe, hell, Hank or Rosalee would be a comfort to him. Just to hear a friendly voice, someone who cared about him. But his phone was sitting dead on the passenger seat in his car, where he'd left it before he was jumped.

Nick's hands shook as he lifted his button-down shirt to reveal the blooming blues and greens of the bruises covering his ribs. His chest felt like it was on fire, flames licked inside his skin and seared his bones. The burn spread through his chest and abdomen, leaving him to choke and cough until a splatter of blood ran over his lips. He whipped the trail of blood from his mouth with his torn sleeve.

His knees locked and Nick dropped to the ground like a bag of rocks, his already heavy head crashing against the floor with a crack. White spots danced across his vision, the light overhead flickered as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

Is this karma for all the lies I've told the people I love? All the excuses I gave Hank and Juliette while working wesen cases? All the times I resented being a Grimm instead of embracing the fate of my family for decades?

Distantly he could hear the bathroom door being slammed open, handle smashing into the wall as someone rushed inside. A pair of hands belonging to a blurry figure lifted his head and Nick squinted his eyes, trying to see more of the person above him. But all he could come up with in his state was long, dark hair.

"It's going to be alright," a soft voice whispered above him as gentle hands stroked his matted hair away from his forehead. "Don't struggle. I'll make you better."

"No-" he tried to pull himself away as hands dug through his pockets, finding his wallet and notepad, passing by his gun and badge without a thought. "Who are-?"

The woman hushed him as Nick began to cough, her cool hands pressing into his skin to dull the ache. "It will be alright." She repeated again.

A feeling of tranquility washed over him, like water flowing from the tips of the woman's fingers down his wary face and inflamed chest, alleviating the pain. The beating he had taken from the half-dozen wesen seeming like a distant memory. All the cuts and bruises covering his body were nothing more than his imagination.

Nick felt safe and warm- like he was sitting on his comfortable couch at home, drinking a cup of hot coffee and watching the Sunday game with Hank and Wu.

Nick felt his muscles relax and the weight of his body become lighter than a feather. Strangely he could hear classical music floating around him, the scent of freshly baked garlic bread filled his nose and the feel of paper on his fingertips.

"Is dinner ready yet?" someone asked and Nick tried to open his eyes or answer but he couldn't move. He felt like a marble statue, trapped in darkness without sight or a voice. "Adalind?" they called out again.

Nick felt a tinge of anger break through the mist of contentment at the mention of the hexenbiest. She had done so much to hurt him and his friends- things she had gotten away with, avoiding punishment from both the detective and the Grimm version of Nick. From trying to kill his already dying aunt in the hospital, drugging his partner into falling in love with her, blackmailing him for his ancestral Grimm key, to trying to murder him constantly.

Rosalee had mentioned something about taking away Adalind's powers the last time he'd spoken to her. Hank was still recovering from the love potion, thankfully they had gotten to him before he became too enamoured and Juliette was stable.

A blinding light flashed before his eyes before he lost consciousness completely.

~Unknown~

A picture was wedged between the pages of his notepad, edges soaked in the detective's drying blood. Staring back was a beautiful blonde with piercing blue eyes. She was smiling widely towards the camera and there was a humorous spark in her eye.

The woman looked passed the picture towards the man's face, he was in great pain. She tried to ease it but he continued to be difficult and struggle against the calming spell. She could hear the blood in his veins hemorrhaging and smell his life fading away the longer she waited to do something.

She flipped the photograph over again, reading the looped script on the back. It was a woman's elegant handwriting. A gift from his girlfriend while he's fighting crime, perhaps.

Adalind Schade

Central Park, New York

February 2014

The spell was in a morally grey area. She had never used it before, only having read about it secretly in her family's library.

But in that moment, watching a man die right in front of her, holding him as his blood soaked her jeans and stained her skin, she felt like it was the only choice she had. She closed her eyes and began to whisper the spell in his ear, feeling the magic seep through her and flow out towards the man. A golden glow filled the bathroom, strings of silver wrapped around the detective and reached out towards his lifeline.

~Adalind Schade~

Serena and Camilla were sitting on her couch drinking wine while Adalind checked the boiling pot and the timer for the oven. The pasta was almost done and she could hear her friends talking in the living room. Adalind had kicked off her heels the moment she had walked through the door, wanting to be more comfortable before they could go over their casefile for the week. It was a big company merger for a friend of their boss and the three of them were covering the case as vigilantly as possible.

She shrugged her blazer off, folding it over the back of one of her dining chairs and stirred the pasta.

"Addy!" Serena called from the other room. "Is dinner ready?"

Adalind rolled her eyes at her friends' impatience. "Almost!"

"Hurry up, Cami is about to tell us about her one night stand from this weekend."

"The firefighter?" Adalind asked, checking on the baking garlic bread before turning the stove off and pulling the tray out of the oven. "Or the journalist?"

"Neither," Cami giggled. "The pilot."

She poured the pasta into plates and balanced them carefully as she walked back to the living room, setting all the food on the table. Her friends refilled her wine glass and quickly ushered her into a seat on the plush couch.

"Did he take you into his cockpit?" Serena wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"You're disgusting!" Cami was careful not to spill either of their wine glasses as she wacked Serena across the arm with one of the embroidered pillows on Adalind's couch. "But it was certainly a bumpy ride on the way down."

They broke out in laughter, Adalind rolled her eyes and sunk her teeth into a slice of garlic bread, rubbing a headache into her temples. She felt the slam of something hard against the back of her head, leaving her a gasping mess. Distantly Adalind saw her hand drop her wine glass onto her rug, watching the red pool at her feet like blood.

"Adalind?" Serena asked her, voice full of concern.

"I don't-" Adalind swayed, an intense burning sensation traveling through her. Sharp jabs of pain appeared on her ribs. "I don't feel-"

Her nails dug into the fabric of her couch, she could hear the rip as her fingers tore through, leaving behind claw-like stripes. Adalind's throat felt raw and she could hear the bloodcurdling scream as it left her, breaking the bottle of wine on the table and the mirror next to the front door. An excruciating, twisting pain crawled up her spine.

Adalind didn't know when she dropped to the ground but she could hear her friends panicked voices, but when she opened her eyes they weren't there. She looked around the filthy bathroom, grimacing away from the mold and stains covering the walls and floor.

She felt herself being lifted from the ground as her eyes rolled back and she lost consciousness.

To be continued...

Disclaimer: I do not own Grimm or any of the characters. Although if I did there would definitely be more seasons.

I got into the Grimm fandom very late, as in two weeks ago while I was in Europe and I marathoned the whole thing and now here I am. I loved the Adalind and Nick relationship from episode one (Adalind might have also been an instant favourite because we have the same name, it's just spelled differently). This story will be an AU- which means the timeline is a goddamn mess- based slightly on the episode Blind Love, and I don't know how long it will be or exactly when I'll be updating.

Just enjoy, follow, favourite and review!