Chapter Text
Nick approached the building mentioned in an anonymous tip cautiously. Hank reached the door first and flanked it as Nick knocked.
“Police! Open up!”
The building didn’t have any residents, at least not paperwork-wise, but two wesen who’d been attacking other wesen had been seen coming and going.
There was no response. Nick pounded on the door again and listened closely. Two heartbeats lay in wait on the other side of the wall. They thudded steadily faster the longer that the silence stretched out.
“Both are just behind the door.” Nick whispered.
Hank nodded. They waited for a count of three, then broke down the door. The suspects yelped. One scrambled to run, the other turned to swing a punch at Nick’s face.
Nick caught the punch with one hand and struck with the other. The suspect hissed and woged as he doubled over. A Skalengeck. Hank shouted that the other was out the back door. Nick snapped a pair of handcuffs over the Skalengeck’s wrists.
“Tell backup that he’s here.” Nick half pushed, half guided the wesen to sit on the ground. “I’ll go get the other one.”
Nick messaged Monroe that their other suspect was headed his way and ran for the back door. Hank tossed him his own pair of handcuffs as he went.
“I’ll catch up!”
Nick stepped outside. His gut twisted for leaving Hank with a dangerous wesen. He was doing better with most of the… changes since he’d first woged, but some of them still caught him off guard. Hank would be fine, he knew that, he just hadn’t found a way to stop some of the ‘gut feelings’ of sorts from happening.
He shook his head and listened.
Tracking, hunting, those were instincts that he had gotten a hang of. Nick caught the sound that he was listening for and stepped into his woge. The wave of cold and calm draped over him like a cloak. His skin paled to gray, with black markings, and the world around him shifted as his vision changed. That eliminated his mixed feelings pretty handily. Nick knew that Hank would be safe, and Nick had to focus on getting the suspect behind bars. That was easier anyway.
Nick bolted after sounds of scrambling steps and a rapid heartbeat. He could hear cars passing at the nearby road, Hank on the radio, and, a bit further off, Monroe joining the chase. Nick picked up speed. The suspect was not yet in sight, but would never lose him now that Nick was on his tail. They darted down the alley, across a parking lot, down a small street. Nick had a sightline now. The suspect’s breath caught in panic.
That breathing rang in Nick’s ears.
He couldn’t hear anything else. His radio vibrated at his belt, but he couldn’t decipher the words. A low growl rumbled in his chest. The suspect scrambled around a corner.
Nick launched himself around that same corner, but shouts sent him reeling back for a moment, more people. The suspect moved to run again. Nick struck out to grab him and got hold of one arm. The suspect lost his balance and dragged Nick down with him.
Nick let go and rolled to get back to his feet. He turned on a dime and lashed out. He heard a cry, he felt hot blood on his claws. He snarled.
A hand grasped his arm. Nick twisted, more blood spilled and a short gasp cut the air. Nick’s heartbeat stuttered.
The suspect moved, but there was a second figure between him and Nick. Nick pushed past to get at his prey. He couldn’t let it escape-
His claws hit flesh a third time. He heard a shout. He stumbled. His shoulder hit the wall. Voices rang in his ears. His prey- the suspect’s breathing faded. It was- he was getting further away. Nick’s prey was getting away, but all that he could see was the blood dripping down the side of his hand.
It was the wrong blood.
The two remaining figures approached. Nick dragged his eyes away from the hot blood. He finally recognized them, for a moment, before he zeroed in on the matching claw marks that both of them bore.
The haze of still-alien instincts crushed him as panic fought his slow heartbeat. Nick bolted. The shocked shouts of Hank and Monroe took chase behind him.
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The suspect was the furthest thing from Hank’s mind as he chased after Nick. With a shortcut, both him and Monroe had managed to get ahead of the suspect, where they’d waited for Nick to chase the suspect right to them. Nick hadn’t responded to their updates over the radio, not even a quick acknowledgement. Hank should’ve known that something was wrong.
And when Nick had come around the corner after the suspect, Hank wasn’t even sure if his partner had realized that he and Monroe were there. Nick’s focus had never strayed from the suspect and getting his claws into him. Then, when Monroe had stepped up to try and calm Nick down, Nick’s claws had struck the Blutbad.
The slashes in Hank’s forearm stung. Maybe standing between a woged Grimm and the suspect that he was chasing hadn’t been the best idea, but Hank had been hurt worse before, and now he had no intention of stopping until he knew that Nick was alright.
Monroe shouted and pointed, Hank followed.
Hank couldn’t tell where Nick was headed, and wasn’t sure if Nick knew either, but he fought to keep pace. He noticed that Monroe wasn’t running at full speed, so he caught up.
“What the hell is going on?” He gasped.
“Weird instincts I’d guess?” Monroe shrugged helplessly.
“So, what do we do?”
“I don’t know, it’s-” Monroe’s eyes were ahead of him, but he seemed distracted too. “It’s Grimm instincts, I have no clue how those work.”
“Then we figure out where he’s headed and go from there.” Hank took a deep breath to start running harder again.
“Then we go from there.” Monroe agreed.
Their chase slowed when Nick did, but whenever they managed to get close, Nick would run again. Hank slowed down and kept his distance so as to not scare him off, but made sure that he always knew where Nick was at once he got his eyes on him. It was the strategy Hank would use to chase down a scared animal.
But Nick always knew where they were at too, he could probably hear their heartbeats at this distance, let alone their footsteps and breathing.
Eventually, Hank put out a Hank to stop Monroe.
“We’re not catching him like this.” Hank winced as the clawmarks he’d been ignoring twinged with pain. “He’s not himself and he doesn’t want to be near us right now. Plus, we’re hurt-” Hank wondered if that had something to do with Nick’s current state, “we should get ourselves looked after.”
Monroe hesitated, looking after where Nick had slipped into a closed shop building. It was probably dark and quiet.
“We know where he is. If he doesn’t come back on his own, then we can come back, or send someone else if he’s still avoiding us.”
Monroe sighed and nodded.
“Okay, alright. Let’s get Rosalee to take a look.” Monroe dragged his gaze away from the building to check his own wound. He did cringe at the blood still oozing from it, but didn’t seem to be in any more pain than Hank was. “We should be fine, as long as he's not venomous or something.”
Hank shook his head with a chuckle. He was still tense, but he sent Nick a quick text, letting him know what they were doing in case he came back to himself when they were gone. Hank turned away, finally. They’d be back, as soon as they knew how best to help, they’d be back.