I want to thank everyone for their support while I was writing this story. I promised I would finish it and I did. Flames be damned.

Have fun with the last chapter. All good things must come to an end :)

"So."

Nick stopped toweling his hair, looking at his partner with an expectant expression. Half dressed, wearing only sweat pants, his hair sticking on end, Monroe found he looked amusingly adorable.

"So?" the Grimm asked.

Distracted by so much naked, pale skin, the blutbad to rein in his braincells. Especially looking at the claim mark, renewed and brightly visible against the shoulder.

"So how much of this did he see again?" the blutbad asked.

Nick blinked. "Huh?"

"That little sharing session you and Renard had? It gave me a good idea what you can do in relation to this connection," Monroe went on. "You got experimental. We had a threesome and I didn't even know about it?"

Nick walked over to him and sat down next to the taller man on the bed. "I didn't have sex with him, Monroe. And it wasn't a threesome. It was a stupid experiment that backfired."

"That much I got."

Because Nick had lowered his shields to blindside the regnant and in the end the whole emotional wave had turned into something neither had expected.

"I know why you did it, too," Monroe added carefully.

Because Renard had used the growing connection to read Nick and his little Grimm had grown annoyed at his lack of control in that regard. So he had pushed intense emotions Renard's way. Intense, sexually motivated ones. And the regnant had been overwhelmed, unable to pull out.

They hadn't slept together.

Monroe was a little confused and somehow jealousy wasn't an issue. It was simply… unexpected.

"My shields are good now," Nick said, looking earnestly at him. "And after this fiasco I'm not going to go there again."

"Good."

He interlaced their fingers, pulling Nick close. The other man smelled of body soap, mixed with the unmistakable scent that was Nick, and his damp hair and warm skin were intoxicating.

The kiss was gentle, not at all arousing, without even a hint of fangs.

"I love you," Nick whispered.

And he was his mate. The only person in this world who knew everything about Monroe, every little dark detail. Well, Nick and with him Renard. But Nick was his alone, his Grimm, his mate.

Monroe buried his head against Nick's neck, scenting him, aware of so much going through him, such intense emotions, and acceptance. Complete acceptance of what had happened in the past.

"Mine," he murmured.

"Yours."

And that was all that was needed.

x x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x x

Work was work. Renard had never treated Nick differently, nor had he shown any, even tiny, hint that they were closer than superior and subordinate. The balance was well and good and always there. Nick felt the evenness of Sean's presence, his cool and calmness, even throughout harrying cases. The regnant was reassured of his counterpart's health and safety because of the connection and no closer contact was necessary.

The ability to kind of communicate with emotions throughout their bond was rarely, if ever, used. Nick found it distracting because he wanted to react to it verbally, which would have confused anyone else around, and Renard wasn't a bastard to use it to tease and taunt him. After just a few days the intense sensations had lessened and only spikes made it through. Mostly it was annoyance and exasperation from Renard's side, and anger and frustration from Nick.

Work-related, normal emotions.

Clari noticed the change. Not every creature was sensitive to the new source of power the Grimm carried within him, but some did a double take and actually looked more cowed than aggressive.

Clari handed Nick his coffee, her dark eyes wide and intense. Nick said nothing, just waited, careful not to scare the hare creature. As brave as she had been while both of them had been victims of a store hold-up, she was still a hare and hares scared easily.

"I had heard about Portland's status as a regnant's territory," she finally said, voice soft. "I just didn't think… well, it's like a myth and a fairy tale and lots of rumors." She smiled shyly. "But it's true?"

"Yes."

She looked at him again. "You met him."

"Yes."

"You have changed, detective. For the better." Clari smiled at him, warm and friendly.

"Thanks. I think." Nick put the coffee money on the counter.

She rolled her eyes. The Grimm still refused to accept a gift from her.

"You're hopeless, detective," she said mildly.

Nick grinned and left the shop, nodding at the man who had just entered. A creature. Mausherz, if he interpreted the quick flash of creature features. The man stared at him in shock, then scurried over to the counter where Clari would sort things out. She was very helpful in that regard, even if she refused to accept payment for the occasional coffee.

x x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x x

Nick hadn't taken the outcome of the spinnetod murders all that well. Looking at the woman who had had no choice but to follow a biological imperative, it was way too close to home.

Sean had followed the same imperative when he had claimed the Grimm as his counterpart. And in a way Nick had reacted to the creature in Renard because of how compatible they were.

Monroe had simply given him that 'What are you going on about?' look and handed him a second beer. Then he had gone into explaining creatures and instincts and the inevitability of some things to the Grimm.
Nick had hated to know how driven some creatures were, how they had to stick to their behavioral pattern because of their nature.

"Not all," Monroe had argued, looking a bit hurt.

Nick had smiled, knowing fully well that his partner had broken that vicious circle. As had Charlotte, but she was still tempted and her control could snap if she let it. And there was the fact that the effects of her restraint were looking her in the face whenever she looked into a mirror.

Well, not that Monroe couldn't become a vicious beast and go after girls in red, but he didn't do it to look young and beautiful. Lena had fought herself, her nature, but she had given in because she had looked into the eyes of the creature and seen her sickness.

It was sobering.

It was painful.

It was what a Grimm had to deal with.

Then there was Sally. She was going down the same road and leaving her with her grandmother, who was also a spider creature, hadn't sat well with Nick. Not that there was anything else to do. Spiders were spiders; you couldn't change them. She either killed her mates and stayed young and beautiful, or she was young and looked ancient.

Monroe had given him the distance Nick needed, hadn't pressed on, but Renard wasn't so lenient. The regnant was there, right next to him, as Nick tried to be alone and deal with it all.

Renard wouldn't let him.

"You won't ever be alone."

Yeah, well, right now the connection sucked.

"Deal with it," came the wry response as the other man caught those fragments.

"What happens to her now?" Nick asked aloud.

"She'll go to jail for murder."

"And her husband?"

"Accomplice. Accessory. Something like that."

"They have a daughter."

Renard looked at him, then smiled briefly. "You can't save them all, Nick. She committed murder. She's a serial killer."

"Who might end up in the psych ward."

"Most likely."

"And her daughter? She'll go through the same process."

"It's their lives, Nick. Spiders. We creatures can't be anyone but who we were born."

"Monroe conquered his wolf side."

"No, he leashed it. You helped him tame it. Like you control me."

"I don't," Nick muttered, hating to be reminded just how much the regnant really depended on him, how much Nick could hurt this powerful creature if he only wanted to.

Sean smiled briefly. He wasn't any closer to Nick than before, wasn't touching him, wasn't crowding him. It showed how stable their bond was and how much in control of his nether instincts the regnant had become.

"You have saved a lot of lives, humans and creatures. You brought back lost children or saved the lost from themselves and their darker sides. Lena is a spinnetod. A black widow. She is special, yes, because she never killed her partner, but in the end she committed a crime. She killed all those men, Nick. Neither you nor I can overlook that. Her daughter has to pick her own way in life."

"So I might meet her again in the worst possible way."

"Yes."

Nick growled a curse.

"It's a Grimm's life."

"Well, it sucks," he stated flatly.

The calming waves of the soul energy between them touched Nick, pushed against the anger and pain.

"Life is not fair," the regnant murmured in response to the emotional wave he was privy to.

"I know."

"And still you want to change the course of the world?"

Nick growled. He didn't move, but he projected a 'fuck you' that had the regnant chuckle.

"The world is already changing," he finally snapped and stepped back, glaring at his captain and counterpart. "Because I refuse to be the creature world boogeyman!"

Renard reached out and caressed one pale cheek. "You're not. You never were." He drew closer to Nick, their contact sensual and gentle. "But the world needs time to adjust to this. To you. And sometimes, like this time, things can't be changed, good intentions or not. You didn't kill her or her husband. Nor did you kill the child."

Nick's disgust was overwhelming. He knew of the other Grimms, of his family line, of his gruesome heritage. Wherever he went, creatures first looked at him in abject fear and terror.

"You're the good guy, Nick. But you can't let her go. She killed. She will be tried."

"And end up in a psychiatric ward."

Renard's touch was distracting, the warmth and understanding leeching the anger away. The regnant smiled and hugged him briefly. It was something they both needed and their souls resonated with the echoes.

Nick finally nodded. He got some distance between them, squaring his shoulders.

"I'm okay."

"Liar."

He smirked, then walked away. Monroe would be all over him, too. At home. Probably worrying and snarking and telling him the very same things Renard had. Just in his own, very direct way.

"And he's right"

"Stop spying!"

There was no anger there. It was just a scolding. Renard's presence retreated behind their habitual shields, but the amusement Nick had felt emanating from the regnant lingered.

He smiled to himself.

Nick gave him a dirty look, then left the room to return to his desk. Reports to write, cases to close.

x x x x x x

Monroe looked at the caller ID and rolled his eyes.

"What is it this time?" he asked, trying to sound annoyed but failing. "How many pieces do I have to pick up?"

"No more than the usual," Renard's deep voice told him calmly. "You know about the black widow?"

"Yeah?"

"Nick's taking it pretty hard."

"I figured. He was worked up already. So…?"

"I did what I could. He's not in a dark mood, but he might be snarky and snapping."

"Ah. The usual," Monroe nodded to himself. "I can deal with that."

"I knew you would."

Not like he really needed a heads-up with his little Grimm when Nick was dealing with creature-related emotional floods, but it helped to know he wasn't alone in watching out for him.

Renard had hung up and the blutbad slipped the cell phone back into a pocket, then went into the kitchen. Dinner might have to wait. Or they could order something.

x x x x x x

Delivery it was an hour after Nick had come home, working off the negative emotions, dealing with the fall-out in his very own way. Monroe had watched and listened to the angry rant for a while, then caught one wrist and pulled the unresisting man with him onto the couch.

"Life's not fair," he murmured.

It really wasn't. Nick was trying his best to be a new kind of Grimm, the original kind of Grimm, not the bad guy. As he had told Charlotte: he was different.

"Sally could be different," Nick said into the silence. "Her grandmother knew Lena loved her mate, that she would never hurt him, but if Sally is confronted by the aging process, she might snap. That's what drives them. Not the hunger to kill, just the need to stay young on the outside as well."

Monroe nodded against the dark head. He had seen Charlotte. He had known the spinnetod when she was a breathtakingly beautiful woman. At least his own restraint to give in to his creature nature didn't age him. A vegetarian lifestyle made him an outsider to his own people, but not an old man while he was twenty-six on the inside.

"How old did her grandmother look?" he asked.

Nick stiffened a little.

Ah. Young, then.

"And Sally knows, right?"

"Yeah. She looked at me like some kind of mythical being. Her grandmother thanked me for not killing either of them, but I knew she saw death a better option to a life in prison, looking like seventy, craving to feed."

"Nick…"

The younger man sat up, still not fully at ease but struggling to digest it all. "I know, I know. My job. Their lives. Their needs. I can't change a creature. I wouldn't be able to make you not like red or react to a girl in red. I wouldn't be able to stop a regnant from being an overprotective mother-hen in his territory. Or sway a geier away from harvesting from the dying. It's just… I didn't grow up knowing this, Monroe. I'm still learning."

"And those are harsh lessons, dude," Monroe agreed.

"Yeah."

It wouldn't be easy. It hadn't been so far and the more Nick understood and learned, the more difficult matters became.

He couldn't save them all, he knew.

He couldn't change the world.

"What you do, what you've already done," Monroe told him and pulled the unresisting man close again, "is so much more than any Grimm has ever done for us before. You're not a monster; we're not monsters."

Nick relaxed against the taller form.

"You can't touch all their lives, but those you saved, like Holly and Clari and Bud and that jagerbar so many more that you spared, they'll know about you, Nick Burckhardt. They can spread the word that not all Grimms are monsters."

"Like not all blutbaden are vicious killers?"

Monroe chuckled. "Wieder-blutbaden are a reformed breed. I wouldn't trust Angelina to follow that church. But I know what you mean."

Nick wrapped his arms around Monroe's middle and positioned his head on the broad chest. He closed his eyes, letting the tension leave his body.

"Thanks," he murmured.

Monroe smiled, carding gentle fingers through the longish, dark strands. "Love ya," he said softly.

Nick mumbled something that was very close to 'Love you too', then his breathing evened out.

Monroe fumbled his cell out of a pocket, then quickly sent a text message to Renard, telling him Nick was fine, sleeping.

He got a reply telling him 'thank you'.

Monroe made himself comfortable and Nick curled closer, burying into the blutbad's flannel shirt. Monroe smiled, keeping up the gentle caresses.

x x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x xx x x x x x

Things got back to normal.

Well, as normal as Grimm life could be. Nick had his 'creature cases' and brought home the usual scrapes and bruises. Monroe tried not to fuss; he failed miserably. Renard tried not to hover when Nick was at work after such an incident; he failed just as miserably.

Nick simply rolled his eyes at them, told Renard to cut it out and let Monroe reassure himself that his mate was fine.

Life as usual.

Life as a Grimm, mate to a blutbad, companion-counterpart to the Portland regnant.

Not something any other Grimm had ever mentioned; not something any other Grimm might understand.

Nick Burckhardt was unique. Had always been. Monroe had known the younger man was special when he hadn't killed him right away, when he had come back again and again, asking for his help. They had become friends and later so much more.

Renard had never doubted that his detective was special, but he had never thought it would come down to a companion bond. His weak spot, his Grimm, had become the most important person in his life, like he had been important in the lives of so many creatures already.

His position as regnant of Portland had strengthened. His standing had changed.

Because of Nick.

The two creatures would do everything to protect their human bonded.

And Nick would do everything in his considerable power as a Grimm to protect those in need.