(Grimm/Criminal Minds) Eyes of a Steinadler for karrenia_rune
Title: Eyes of a Steinadler
Author: liliaeth
Fandoms: Grimm/Criminal Minds
Characters: Nick Burkhardt, Hank Griffin, Sean Renard, Adrian Zane, Richard Berna, Ryan Smulson; Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan
Pairings: none
Rating: G
Word count:3692
Spoilers: The story is set during ep 210 for Grimm and s8 for Criminal Minds
Warnings: non graphic mention of past child abuse, kidnapping and potential risk to the victim
Disclaimer: Grimm belongs to NBC and Criminal Minds belongs to CBS, I can only wish I’d own either
A/N: Thanks so much to tipsy_kitty, errous_wheeler and moon_blitz for the quick beta.
Summary: There are some things people know about Hotchner, the fact that he is a Steinadler is not one of them.
There were many things people knew about Aaron Hotchner, some that he wanted them to know, and others that he kept secret but that got out anyway. The fact that he was a Steinadler wasn't part of either of those. It's hard to explain what it means to be a Steinadler. It's not that they were utterly inhuman, different yes, but still oh-so-human; neither good nor evil by nature, just inclined to lead, to seek adventure. They weren't stronger than the average human, they didn't heal more quickly, and despite their appearance they neither have wings, nor could they fly. What they did have was a sure set of eyes that would catch more than the average human could even bother to try.
Steinadlers were as famous for their sense of perception as they were for their poker faces.
Most days, Hotch was barely ever faced with what he was, so in the habit of pretending to be like everyone else that the idea he wasn't fully human barely even entered his mind. It definitely hadn't stopped him from falling in love with Haley, or siring a son with her. He still wondered at times if Jack would be Steinadler, human, or a mixture of both. But for now the boy was too young to be sure of anything.
Sometimes he brooded on that, wondering if he should tell Jack about the possibility; about the world he might be a part of, but that he might have to keep him hidden from. He’d pulled his grandmother’s storybook, her Alptraumer, out so many times, and had hidden it away again right after each and every time. He didn't want to risk it. And he knew quite well what a coward that made him towards his son.
There were times that it bothered him that he couldn't just tell his team the truth; how often his profiling was aided in knowing just what they were dealing with - the Klaustreich who was abusing his wife - the Maushertz who couldn't help himself from collecting as many eyes as he could - the Blutbad who lost himself in the rage of red... All the times that he hadn't had any proof of their suspect's true nature, other than what he saw of them when they went into woge.
It made him a better profiler; made him look for clues other than the obvious to prove his case. And most of the time that served him well. Other times... Even Hotchner knew he had his preconceptions, and as much as he tried to fight them, instinct was so often stronger than even the best of his intentions.
It was that way when he was called for the BAU's latest case in the river city - the city of Portland, Oregon. They'd arrived early on in the case; a kidnapping of a young woman. Donna Reynolds had been taken from her apartment, and there were few or no clues to find on whom had taken her. Even knowing that, the BAU wouldn't usually have been called in so early, not when the victim was an adult. Then again, Donna Reynolds hadn't been the first victim. Oh, she'd been the first taken by these particular Schakal, but they weren't the only ones involved in this particular circle of human trade. To Schakal, humans were no more than exotic animals, to be used, or abused, however it pleased the Schakal to do so.
If they had succeeded, Donna Reynolds would never have been seen again. She'd have fallen in some Ziegevolk's hands who'd have kept her pregnant for years on end until he got tired of her and replaced her with some new girl. Or worse, she could have ended up sold to a Geier for the use of her organs. The Schakal had plenty of customers waiting for their merchandise.
It's why Hotchner had gotten his team involved from the start, instead of waiting for a second third or more innocent humans to get taken. He just hadn't expected to come face to face with his worst fear quite so quickly. The one thing he'd hoped to never see again. The one thing that almost literally made his heart freeze. He felt the woge coming on and didn’t even bother to try and stop it. Just the look of that skull on the basement wall, challenging him, calling him or any Wesen out for the fight. The call of fear, of intimidation, the G of the Grimm.
He wasn’t a stranger to horror, he’d seen bodies mutilated far worse than the one shown in Portland. So all he could blame it on was the fairytales his Nana used to tell him when he was a child. It was that child's fear that waged war in his heart now.
He remembered sitting in bed, waiting for Nana to tell him and Sean about Blutbaden and Reinigen, about their own ancestors - heroic Steinadlers who’d made a difference in the world. Generals of armies, leaders of nations. But most of all, they wanted to sit there in the dark and listen to stories about the worst of the worst, the Grimm. Because it somehow made it less bad to deal with his father, because at least Dad wasn’t a Grimm, because even if… no matter what there was something worse out there.
There was a link there, between the fear of a Grimm coming in the middle of the night; and that heartbreaking sound of the door opening and waiting in the dark, hoping for it to stay closed just this once. How he used to fear the stench of beer clinging to his father on the nights that the man was pissed off with anything, the world, them, whatever set him off that specific day. How he’d have to keep Sean behind him, hidden, so that he wouldn’t be the one carrying the scars. The nights that Dad didn’t come in were even worse, because then you’d keep waiting and waiting, getting more scared with every passing second, until you fell asleep trembling, because the relief of it all being over, never came.
Dad got angry when he heard those bedtime tales; he'd tell Nana to stop telling them crap like that. That she should stop treating them like kids and get them ready for the real world. Dad never wanted to hear about Grimms, not since Mom. Not since the blood on the carpet or the red fingerprints on the walls.
The murder, the torture, that wasn’t what the team was here for, it wasn’t their case. But Hotch knew better than anyone that he had to get involved before the number of victims went up. Even if this wasn’t supposed to be FBI business.
They had arrived at the precinct earlier that day - him, Morgan and Blake; Reid. Rossi and JJ were working on the case in DC; they'd follow later if needed. There wasn't anything particularly special about the station, desks, police officers, witnesses ... suspects. Suspects like the man who was about to be released as they came in.
The guy had been angry at the cop letting him out; who was clearly trying to calm him down without any real sympathy evident in his voice. The suspect's face had been bruised and his lip split as if he'd been in a fight. A suspicion that turned out to be all too right.
His name was Adrian Zayne. He was the main suspect in the kidnapping case that had brought the BAU over to Portland. The arresting officer said he’d seen the guy burning pictures of Donna Reynolds in his fireplace. But since the pictures didn’t survive the fire, there was no way to prove it.
They hadn’t even realized the guy was a suspect in the case they’d come over for until later. But Hotch hadn’t been able to help seeing the look in the man’s face after the detective involved leaned in and said something, it was one of the few times that Hotch wished his hearing was as good as his eyes. The words, whatever they were seemed to scare the hell out of the guy. “Get him away from me," he'd started yelling. "I didn’t do anything. He’s threatening me, he’s threatening to kill me." Making his accusation even clearer afterwards: “If anything happens to me, he’s responsible.”
He had to be removed from the site by several officers before he left, more scared than angry this time.
It naturally shone a light straight on the detective in question when their main suspect turned up dead the day after. At the time the detective in question had seemed almost innocuous - average face, with dark hair and soft eyes. The kind of man you’d almost ignore;let fade into the background. Just your average pretty boy, not supermodel hot, but not ugly either. Average, until Hotch saw the detective’s reaction to the prisoner’s woge. That look in his eyes, the darkness...
Captain Renard had come up to him right after the confrontation, his timing just a bit too convenient. Renard had introduced himself as per normal and had offered Hotchner and the team a place to set up. Hotch had thanked him, but there’d been a look between them. A hint of something more. A hint made clearer as the captain had flinched upon looking at the interaction between the detective and the suspect. Renard didn’t woge, but Hotch knew that look well enough to know that the man had to be at least connected to the Wesen world.
Hotch had been able to keep himself under control, pretended to be human. He acted the way he would if he hadn’t noticed the threat, the…Grimm. And he’d thought he was successful, that the detective didn’t know, even as he'd had Garcia check the man out. A well decorated police officer, respected by the community, in a long term relationship with a local veterinarian Juliette Silverton, his name was Nick Burkhardt, originally from Rhinebeck, New York. Looking closer, Garcia had discovered that Silverton had recently suffered from some kind of amnesia that made her forget all about her partner, and only her partner.
If there was any less physical proof of Burkhardt and Silverton's relationship, Hotchner would have suspected that something was up, but from all records and quick conversations Burkhardt’s colleagues, there was too much proof that the relationship had been real. Hotch couldn’t help but think that it sounded suspiciously like the effect of some kind of zaubertrank, making him wonder whom Burkhardt had managed to piss off.
Burkhardt was an orphan; his parents had died in what had at first been believed to be a car accident, but that was later proven to be a homicide. The boy had then been raised by his aunt, Marie Kessler. 'The' Marie Kessler, one of the most feared Grimms of the latter half of the century. Just the thought of her name sent shivers down his spine.
And yet, Nick Burkhardt himself was clean as a whistle, no real suspicious deaths surrounding him, cases got solved legally and, looking at the casefiles, even the Wesen amongst them were arrested and given a fair trial. Hotch had almost relaxed, thinking that maybe he’d been wrong, maybe the Grimm wasn’t even aware of what he was. Maybe…
And then the team had been called back to the precinct to deal with the confession, torture and murder of their main suspect.
Hotch couldn’t help but stare at the symbol on the wall, on the man’s body.
G is for Grimm, the Alptraumer said. Endezeichen Grimms, the worst of the worst. Killers, as bad as any of the psychopaths the BAU went after on a regular basis. Bigots, genocidal maniacs, they'd go after men, women, children, even pets, anything even remotely connected to the Wesen world, no matter how innocent. And yet, Burkhardt hadn't felt like an Endezeichen should. But then again, who knew what he'd said to Zayne, and it's not like he'd known that Hotch was a Steinadler. Bigots could be quite friendly people, when not dealing with members of the group they despised.
The worst part was that as much as the Schakal had deserved to pay for what he did, the Endezeichen wouldn’t stop with the guilty. And once again, Burkhardt was connected to it. He’d been the first on the scene of the crime; the first to find the victim, him and his partner, sharing looks as if there was something the two of them were hiding.
Griffin wasn’t a Grimm as far as Hotch could see, but that hadn’t stopped humans from joining up with Grimms in the past. Fear of the unknown, seeing a Wesen woge with little or no understanding of what they were, any human could be convinced that all Wesen were a threat against humanity. Morgan had talked to the man, said he seemed OK, a bit worried about the case and he kept throwing glances at his partner, but that wasn’t proof.
And this wasn’t their case. It wasn’t.
But he'd touched the blood on the wall, seen the brand on the Schakal's body, and knew it was his responsibility to do something, anything, because the humans around him would either not know or care. It's not that they were incompetent, in fact they were more successful than he'd expected them to be. Once Zayne's confession was used to save Donna Reynolds, the detectives had spared no time questioning her about her kidnapping, both for the case involving her and that of the Schakal's murder.
It took them only a few more hours, and a bit of help from Garcia, to find the van used for Reynold's kidnapping, and with it their second suspect, another Schakal called Richard Berna.
The arrest would have gone off easy, if Berna hadn't started screaming about Burkhardt as well, terrified of the Grimm. Hotch hadn't been able to keep himself from glaring at Burkhardt, and Morgan had taken it upon himself to ask Burkhardt what the hell was going on with him and the suspects. Of course he didn't know. Hotch almost told him the truth, just to have someone to share his worries with.
He started looking through his files, reading everything he could find about the Endezeichen. But he didn't find anything more than he already knew, and the only suspect he had was a mild mannered detective whom no one genuinely believed could possibly be a threat to anyone.
And yet, the Grimm did nothing to prove his suspicions. He didn’t do anything more than what any other cop would do. Berna didn’t disappear on the way to the precinct, the man got interrogated, his van was investigated.
Hotchner kept his eyes on Burkhardt at all times, waiting for the Grimm to try something. It almost hurt, just waiting for something to happen - for Burkhardt to try and slip out, for the Grimm’s sidekick to step out of the way. And then the suspect escaped, or more accurately, someone let him go - someone who hadn't wanted to be seen, someone who knew where the cameras were, how to stay out of sight.
“Where is he?” Hotchner asked, the second he had a chance to get Burkhardt alone. “Who let him out for you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The Grimm didn't back off, barely flinching as Aaron changed.
“I know you’re a Grimm.”
“So? I know you’re a Steinadler, doesn’t mean I’m going around accusing you of things.”
Hotch let go and Burkhardt straightened his shirt as they stood there for a moment glaring at one another. Hotch wondered who would flinch first, which side would take the first strike. Standing stock still, shivering on the inside as he faced the one fear that had ever held him back. The Grimm.
"We have to get to Berna," the Grimm said.
"Why? So you can kill him?"
"No!" The Grimm seemed torn at even the presumption of guilt. "To arrest him. I don't kill people, not for no reason. I'm not that kind of Grimm." He seemed so sincere, and still Hotch couldn't believe him. He knew it was that old weakness again, that inability to look beyond species and down onto the person behind it.
But there was that look on his face. The look of horror as he stared at the violence used against the Schakal, the distress as he watched the video. In anyone else, Hotchner would have believed it, would have seen it as a hint at innocence. But Burkhardt wasn't innocent, he was a Grimm, they didn’t care about Wesen, they were indiscriminate in what they hunted, or so their reputation said. So every story of his childhood said.
But it wasn’t Burkhardt who’d murdered Berna, he’d been at the station; it hadn’t been Burkhardt who let Berna out to get killed by some other Grimm, and it wasn’t even Griffin, who’d been with Burkhardt all along.
Hotch was going to demand answers, make sure Burkhardt told him about any other Grimms in the area. He was going to push and any other consequences be damned. He froze when he saw the Grimm talking to an Eisbiber, an Eisbiber who apparently knew what Burkhardt was and still told him he trusted him, that the entire lodge trusted him, and actually dared to demand some certainty that Burkhardt was going to do something about the other Grimm. It was that more than anything that told him that Nick Burkhardt wasn’t like any other Grimm he’d ever even heard about.
Sure, there were some Wesen that had long held truces with the Grimms; that acted like their allies, their flunkies in return for safety from the Grimms' purges. But the Eisbibers weren’t amongst them. They generally fell below the Grimms' interest, too harmless, too weak, too useless. Ignored, except when the Endezeichen went on another one of their rampages. And yet this one, he wasn’t just unafraid of Burkhardt, which was reasonable, even the smartest of people could start to relax around a predator until the day they stopped being careful and got bit by their trust. But that wasn’t going on here, the Eisbiber actively trusted Burkhardt to care, to protect him and his people. And Burkhardt didn’t seem to want to disappoint that trust. It went against everything Hotch had ever learned, it was almost unnatural. The Eisbiber seemed terrified when he finally noticed Hotch, jumping behind the Grimm of all things for protection.
“It’s ok, Bud, he’s with the FBI.”
Bud didn’t seem to be quite ready to believe it, even as he left while begging the Grimm to just look into things and stop the other Grimm before people stopped trusting Burkhardt, because apparently people did trust him.
“How did that happen?” Hotch asked.
“What? Bud? He found out I was a Grimm when he came to fix my refrigerator and things just went from there. They’re terrible gossips, or so I've been told.”
Burkhardt was obviously protecting someone, but whom? Someone he didn't trust Hotchner to know about, so it obviously wasn't Griffin.
They dealt with the case, after that, working together. Turned out their killer wasn’t a Grimm at all. Just a Lebensauger who couldn’t accept his own nature. Admiring Burkhardt to such a degree that he pushed the identity of a Grimm on himself, not based on Burkhardt, but on the stories his parents had told him about Grimms, stories that Burkhardt of course fell way short of.
Hotch couldn’t help but stare as a Wesen thanked a Grimm for saving his life, and the Grimm just awkwardly accepted his hug and thanks.
“My mother died when I was younger,” Hotch said when the three of them were alone, just him, the Grimm, and the Grimm’s partner, relaxing around the predator. “My father would never tell me who was responsible, but he would stiffen when the word Grimm came up.”
Burkhardt nodded, closed his eyes and looked down. Griffin grunted, as if dealing with something he wasn’t sure of.
“I’m not like that,” the Grimm said. “I didn’t even know I was a Grimm untill about a year ago, when my aunt came in town, she was dying. She said… she wanted to protect me from the family’s curse, she hoped it would skip a generation."
“Marie Kessler.”
“I got pulled into things after that. But I got lucky, I had a friend who told me about Wesen, he told me things that weren’t in my ancestor’s books. Bits that my ancestors would never have bothered to think about. He got me past the fear, made me realize that I couldn't judge a book by its cover, no matter what I thought I saw."
Hotch stood still, demanding more.
“He’s a Blutbad, a Wieder Blutbad, won’t harm anyone. I don’t know what I’d be like as a Grimm if I hadn’t had him to explain things to me.”
A Grimm trained by a Blutbad… A Grimm who befriended a Blutbad. It shouldn’t happen, just like a Steinadler shouldn’t trust a Grimm. Yet the more time he spent with Burkhardt the harder it became to distrust the young man who went beyond anything Hotch had ever learned.
G is for Grimm, like S is for Steinadler and maybe, just maybe he should stop being a coward and start being true to his heritage. When he left, Hotch stared at his file, the one about Endezeichen Grimms. Two cases in St. Louis, five in New York, three in… dozens over the past few years. But rarely if ever as openly as the ones in Portland. It made him wonder though, how many of those killers had really been Grimms, and how many just thought they were.
He closed the folder with a heavy heart and went back home. He had a story to tell to his son, regardless of what Jack ended up being. After all, how could Jack ever deal with the world, if he didn't know who his father really was.
-END-
Prompt:
Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise
Notes for those interested, here are some definitions of the particular Grimm terms mentioned in the fic: (descriptions come from the Grimm Wiki)
Alptraumer: a book of fairytales for Wesen kids, used to describe the different kind of Wesen, and in particular the worst of the worst, each one identifying with a particular letter. For example, G stands for Grimm.
Blutbad, a wolflike Wesen that is the basis for the story of the Big Bad Wolf. They tend to be highly violent and are feared by Wesen and Grimm alike. Some Blutbaden choose not to live this violent lifestyle, reform, and attend a different church. They are known as Wieder Blutbaden
An Eisbiber is a beaver-like Wesen that are friendly and non violent, but are certainly very nosy. They have a tendency to display their guilt and their gratitude through excessive giftgiving.
Endezeichen Grimm are extremist Grimms who will kill, mutilate and massacre any wesen on their path, killing men, women, children and pets alike. They are a Wesen’s worst fear
A Geier is a highly sadistic vulture-like Wesen.
Grimms are several families of special people, who possess incredible powers, such as being able to see the true form of Wesen, even when they don't want them to. For centuries they have placed it upon themselves to police and hunt the Wesen population, to protect normal humans from the unknown threat around them. They can become extreme, corrupted and used by certain wesen fractions against others and are feared by most species of Wesen
A Klaustreich is a alley cat-like Wesen. They are typically known for being jerks in the Wesen community.
A Lebensauger is a lamprey-like Wesen. Due to their hideous appearance, they often experience self-loathing and even identity crisis, preferring to become what they want to be. They are generally considered to be amongst the most repulsive of Wesen and are subsequently known to be prone to substance abuse
A Mauzhertz is a mouse-like Wesen that are harmless and shy. They possess beady eyes, whiskers jutting out from a pointed nose, and oversized teeth. The Mauzhertz is very timid, often times afraid of its own shadow. Mauzhertzen are very predictable which makes them easy prey. Mauzhertzen are a friendly species, and will go out of their way to avoid trouble
A Reinigen is a rat-like Wesen that exist at the bottom of the Grimm creature food chain. They are similar to rats in that they are scavengers, not being the least bit picky about what they eat, and are rarely violent unless pushed to the limit. They possess a musical ability that enables them to mesmerize and control rats' behavior
A Schakal is a jackal-like Wesen that is notorious for jewel thievery and eating human infants. They are aggressive, cruel and violent, and will let nothing stand in the way of their goals. Schakal are seemingly social Wesen, and are commonly seen working with groups of their own kind, however there is often an air of mistrust and hostility amongst them.
A Steinadler is a hawk-like Wesen (though in German their name means Golden Eagle). They are renown for being smart and have exceptional vision, thanks to having five times more visual sensory cells per millimeter of the retina than humans. Steinadlers also have special colored oils in their eyes that reflect certain wavelengths of light. These special ocular biologic factors endow Steinadlers with near perfect night vision, and most likely a whole host of other ocular abilities. Steinadler are incredibly fast creatures but not superhuman strong. The Steinadler are known for their ability to pokerfacedly exhibit simultaneously friendliness and sternness, so it is impossible to tell whose side one is on. The ability to sternly influence others as though they were subordinate friends makes the Steinadler excellent military figures. They have a reputation for being heroes and adventurers.
Wesen is a term used to describe the creatures visible to the Grimms. They are the basis not only of the fairy tales that the Brothers Grimm have compiled, but also of the many legends and folklore from many cultures
Ziegevolk are goat-like Wesen that are also known as "Bluebeards". They like to be in the public eye. The Ziegevolk are rather meek goat-like creatures that give off a scent, a pheromone, that is excreted from sweat glands that attract women to them, the sent makes women find them irresistible. They do not intend to kill their victims and are considered lovers, not fighters. They are commonly celebrities in Hollywood and many are gameshow hosts. Ziegevolk are often found in bars, where they use their pheromones to lure and seduce victims. Ziegevolk that eat toads are not breeders, but herders, a rarity amongst the species. Unlike breeders, who just seduce women, herders kidnap and rape them. The toads allow the Ziegevolk to give off a more potent pheromone that attracts a victim more easily. They can use this enhanced attraction to force women to do whatever they say.
Author: liliaeth
Fandoms: Grimm/Criminal Minds
Characters: Nick Burkhardt, Hank Griffin, Sean Renard, Adrian Zane, Richard Berna, Ryan Smulson; Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan
Pairings: none
Rating: G
Word count:3692
Spoilers: The story is set during ep 210 for Grimm and s8 for Criminal Minds
Warnings: non graphic mention of past child abuse, kidnapping and potential risk to the victim
Disclaimer: Grimm belongs to NBC and Criminal Minds belongs to CBS, I can only wish I’d own either
A/N: Thanks so much to tipsy_kitty, errous_wheeler and moon_blitz for the quick beta.
Summary: There are some things people know about Hotchner, the fact that he is a Steinadler is not one of them.
There were many things people knew about Aaron Hotchner, some that he wanted them to know, and others that he kept secret but that got out anyway. The fact that he was a Steinadler wasn't part of either of those. It's hard to explain what it means to be a Steinadler. It's not that they were utterly inhuman, different yes, but still oh-so-human; neither good nor evil by nature, just inclined to lead, to seek adventure. They weren't stronger than the average human, they didn't heal more quickly, and despite their appearance they neither have wings, nor could they fly. What they did have was a sure set of eyes that would catch more than the average human could even bother to try.
Steinadlers were as famous for their sense of perception as they were for their poker faces.
Most days, Hotch was barely ever faced with what he was, so in the habit of pretending to be like everyone else that the idea he wasn't fully human barely even entered his mind. It definitely hadn't stopped him from falling in love with Haley, or siring a son with her. He still wondered at times if Jack would be Steinadler, human, or a mixture of both. But for now the boy was too young to be sure of anything.
Sometimes he brooded on that, wondering if he should tell Jack about the possibility; about the world he might be a part of, but that he might have to keep him hidden from. He’d pulled his grandmother’s storybook, her Alptraumer, out so many times, and had hidden it away again right after each and every time. He didn't want to risk it. And he knew quite well what a coward that made him towards his son.
There were times that it bothered him that he couldn't just tell his team the truth; how often his profiling was aided in knowing just what they were dealing with - the Klaustreich who was abusing his wife - the Maushertz who couldn't help himself from collecting as many eyes as he could - the Blutbad who lost himself in the rage of red... All the times that he hadn't had any proof of their suspect's true nature, other than what he saw of them when they went into woge.
It made him a better profiler; made him look for clues other than the obvious to prove his case. And most of the time that served him well. Other times... Even Hotchner knew he had his preconceptions, and as much as he tried to fight them, instinct was so often stronger than even the best of his intentions.
It was that way when he was called for the BAU's latest case in the river city - the city of Portland, Oregon. They'd arrived early on in the case; a kidnapping of a young woman. Donna Reynolds had been taken from her apartment, and there were few or no clues to find on whom had taken her. Even knowing that, the BAU wouldn't usually have been called in so early, not when the victim was an adult. Then again, Donna Reynolds hadn't been the first victim. Oh, she'd been the first taken by these particular Schakal, but they weren't the only ones involved in this particular circle of human trade. To Schakal, humans were no more than exotic animals, to be used, or abused, however it pleased the Schakal to do so.
If they had succeeded, Donna Reynolds would never have been seen again. She'd have fallen in some Ziegevolk's hands who'd have kept her pregnant for years on end until he got tired of her and replaced her with some new girl. Or worse, she could have ended up sold to a Geier for the use of her organs. The Schakal had plenty of customers waiting for their merchandise.
It's why Hotchner had gotten his team involved from the start, instead of waiting for a second third or more innocent humans to get taken. He just hadn't expected to come face to face with his worst fear quite so quickly. The one thing he'd hoped to never see again. The one thing that almost literally made his heart freeze. He felt the woge coming on and didn’t even bother to try and stop it. Just the look of that skull on the basement wall, challenging him, calling him or any Wesen out for the fight. The call of fear, of intimidation, the G of the Grimm.
He wasn’t a stranger to horror, he’d seen bodies mutilated far worse than the one shown in Portland. So all he could blame it on was the fairytales his Nana used to tell him when he was a child. It was that child's fear that waged war in his heart now.
He remembered sitting in bed, waiting for Nana to tell him and Sean about Blutbaden and Reinigen, about their own ancestors - heroic Steinadlers who’d made a difference in the world. Generals of armies, leaders of nations. But most of all, they wanted to sit there in the dark and listen to stories about the worst of the worst, the Grimm. Because it somehow made it less bad to deal with his father, because at least Dad wasn’t a Grimm, because even if… no matter what there was something worse out there.
There was a link there, between the fear of a Grimm coming in the middle of the night; and that heartbreaking sound of the door opening and waiting in the dark, hoping for it to stay closed just this once. How he used to fear the stench of beer clinging to his father on the nights that the man was pissed off with anything, the world, them, whatever set him off that specific day. How he’d have to keep Sean behind him, hidden, so that he wouldn’t be the one carrying the scars. The nights that Dad didn’t come in were even worse, because then you’d keep waiting and waiting, getting more scared with every passing second, until you fell asleep trembling, because the relief of it all being over, never came.
Dad got angry when he heard those bedtime tales; he'd tell Nana to stop telling them crap like that. That she should stop treating them like kids and get them ready for the real world. Dad never wanted to hear about Grimms, not since Mom. Not since the blood on the carpet or the red fingerprints on the walls.
The murder, the torture, that wasn’t what the team was here for, it wasn’t their case. But Hotch knew better than anyone that he had to get involved before the number of victims went up. Even if this wasn’t supposed to be FBI business.
They had arrived at the precinct earlier that day - him, Morgan and Blake; Reid. Rossi and JJ were working on the case in DC; they'd follow later if needed. There wasn't anything particularly special about the station, desks, police officers, witnesses ... suspects. Suspects like the man who was about to be released as they came in.
The guy had been angry at the cop letting him out; who was clearly trying to calm him down without any real sympathy evident in his voice. The suspect's face had been bruised and his lip split as if he'd been in a fight. A suspicion that turned out to be all too right.
His name was Adrian Zayne. He was the main suspect in the kidnapping case that had brought the BAU over to Portland. The arresting officer said he’d seen the guy burning pictures of Donna Reynolds in his fireplace. But since the pictures didn’t survive the fire, there was no way to prove it.
They hadn’t even realized the guy was a suspect in the case they’d come over for until later. But Hotch hadn’t been able to help seeing the look in the man’s face after the detective involved leaned in and said something, it was one of the few times that Hotch wished his hearing was as good as his eyes. The words, whatever they were seemed to scare the hell out of the guy. “Get him away from me," he'd started yelling. "I didn’t do anything. He’s threatening me, he’s threatening to kill me." Making his accusation even clearer afterwards: “If anything happens to me, he’s responsible.”
He had to be removed from the site by several officers before he left, more scared than angry this time.
It naturally shone a light straight on the detective in question when their main suspect turned up dead the day after. At the time the detective in question had seemed almost innocuous - average face, with dark hair and soft eyes. The kind of man you’d almost ignore;let fade into the background. Just your average pretty boy, not supermodel hot, but not ugly either. Average, until Hotch saw the detective’s reaction to the prisoner’s woge. That look in his eyes, the darkness...
Captain Renard had come up to him right after the confrontation, his timing just a bit too convenient. Renard had introduced himself as per normal and had offered Hotchner and the team a place to set up. Hotch had thanked him, but there’d been a look between them. A hint of something more. A hint made clearer as the captain had flinched upon looking at the interaction between the detective and the suspect. Renard didn’t woge, but Hotch knew that look well enough to know that the man had to be at least connected to the Wesen world.
Hotch had been able to keep himself under control, pretended to be human. He acted the way he would if he hadn’t noticed the threat, the…Grimm. And he’d thought he was successful, that the detective didn’t know, even as he'd had Garcia check the man out. A well decorated police officer, respected by the community, in a long term relationship with a local veterinarian Juliette Silverton, his name was Nick Burkhardt, originally from Rhinebeck, New York. Looking closer, Garcia had discovered that Silverton had recently suffered from some kind of amnesia that made her forget all about her partner, and only her partner.
If there was any less physical proof of Burkhardt and Silverton's relationship, Hotchner would have suspected that something was up, but from all records and quick conversations Burkhardt’s colleagues, there was too much proof that the relationship had been real. Hotch couldn’t help but think that it sounded suspiciously like the effect of some kind of zaubertrank, making him wonder whom Burkhardt had managed to piss off.
Burkhardt was an orphan; his parents had died in what had at first been believed to be a car accident, but that was later proven to be a homicide. The boy had then been raised by his aunt, Marie Kessler. 'The' Marie Kessler, one of the most feared Grimms of the latter half of the century. Just the thought of her name sent shivers down his spine.
And yet, Nick Burkhardt himself was clean as a whistle, no real suspicious deaths surrounding him, cases got solved legally and, looking at the casefiles, even the Wesen amongst them were arrested and given a fair trial. Hotch had almost relaxed, thinking that maybe he’d been wrong, maybe the Grimm wasn’t even aware of what he was. Maybe…
And then the team had been called back to the precinct to deal with the confession, torture and murder of their main suspect.
Hotch couldn’t help but stare at the symbol on the wall, on the man’s body.
G is for Grimm, the Alptraumer said. Endezeichen Grimms, the worst of the worst. Killers, as bad as any of the psychopaths the BAU went after on a regular basis. Bigots, genocidal maniacs, they'd go after men, women, children, even pets, anything even remotely connected to the Wesen world, no matter how innocent. And yet, Burkhardt hadn't felt like an Endezeichen should. But then again, who knew what he'd said to Zayne, and it's not like he'd known that Hotch was a Steinadler. Bigots could be quite friendly people, when not dealing with members of the group they despised.
The worst part was that as much as the Schakal had deserved to pay for what he did, the Endezeichen wouldn’t stop with the guilty. And once again, Burkhardt was connected to it. He’d been the first on the scene of the crime; the first to find the victim, him and his partner, sharing looks as if there was something the two of them were hiding.
Griffin wasn’t a Grimm as far as Hotch could see, but that hadn’t stopped humans from joining up with Grimms in the past. Fear of the unknown, seeing a Wesen woge with little or no understanding of what they were, any human could be convinced that all Wesen were a threat against humanity. Morgan had talked to the man, said he seemed OK, a bit worried about the case and he kept throwing glances at his partner, but that wasn’t proof.
And this wasn’t their case. It wasn’t.
But he'd touched the blood on the wall, seen the brand on the Schakal's body, and knew it was his responsibility to do something, anything, because the humans around him would either not know or care. It's not that they were incompetent, in fact they were more successful than he'd expected them to be. Once Zayne's confession was used to save Donna Reynolds, the detectives had spared no time questioning her about her kidnapping, both for the case involving her and that of the Schakal's murder.
It took them only a few more hours, and a bit of help from Garcia, to find the van used for Reynold's kidnapping, and with it their second suspect, another Schakal called Richard Berna.
The arrest would have gone off easy, if Berna hadn't started screaming about Burkhardt as well, terrified of the Grimm. Hotch hadn't been able to keep himself from glaring at Burkhardt, and Morgan had taken it upon himself to ask Burkhardt what the hell was going on with him and the suspects. Of course he didn't know. Hotch almost told him the truth, just to have someone to share his worries with.
He started looking through his files, reading everything he could find about the Endezeichen. But he didn't find anything more than he already knew, and the only suspect he had was a mild mannered detective whom no one genuinely believed could possibly be a threat to anyone.
And yet, the Grimm did nothing to prove his suspicions. He didn’t do anything more than what any other cop would do. Berna didn’t disappear on the way to the precinct, the man got interrogated, his van was investigated.
Hotchner kept his eyes on Burkhardt at all times, waiting for the Grimm to try something. It almost hurt, just waiting for something to happen - for Burkhardt to try and slip out, for the Grimm’s sidekick to step out of the way. And then the suspect escaped, or more accurately, someone let him go - someone who hadn't wanted to be seen, someone who knew where the cameras were, how to stay out of sight.
“Where is he?” Hotchner asked, the second he had a chance to get Burkhardt alone. “Who let him out for you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The Grimm didn't back off, barely flinching as Aaron changed.
“I know you’re a Grimm.”
“So? I know you’re a Steinadler, doesn’t mean I’m going around accusing you of things.”
Hotch let go and Burkhardt straightened his shirt as they stood there for a moment glaring at one another. Hotch wondered who would flinch first, which side would take the first strike. Standing stock still, shivering on the inside as he faced the one fear that had ever held him back. The Grimm.
"We have to get to Berna," the Grimm said.
"Why? So you can kill him?"
"No!" The Grimm seemed torn at even the presumption of guilt. "To arrest him. I don't kill people, not for no reason. I'm not that kind of Grimm." He seemed so sincere, and still Hotch couldn't believe him. He knew it was that old weakness again, that inability to look beyond species and down onto the person behind it.
But there was that look on his face. The look of horror as he stared at the violence used against the Schakal, the distress as he watched the video. In anyone else, Hotchner would have believed it, would have seen it as a hint at innocence. But Burkhardt wasn't innocent, he was a Grimm, they didn’t care about Wesen, they were indiscriminate in what they hunted, or so their reputation said. So every story of his childhood said.
But it wasn’t Burkhardt who’d murdered Berna, he’d been at the station; it hadn’t been Burkhardt who let Berna out to get killed by some other Grimm, and it wasn’t even Griffin, who’d been with Burkhardt all along.
Hotch was going to demand answers, make sure Burkhardt told him about any other Grimms in the area. He was going to push and any other consequences be damned. He froze when he saw the Grimm talking to an Eisbiber, an Eisbiber who apparently knew what Burkhardt was and still told him he trusted him, that the entire lodge trusted him, and actually dared to demand some certainty that Burkhardt was going to do something about the other Grimm. It was that more than anything that told him that Nick Burkhardt wasn’t like any other Grimm he’d ever even heard about.
Sure, there were some Wesen that had long held truces with the Grimms; that acted like their allies, their flunkies in return for safety from the Grimms' purges. But the Eisbibers weren’t amongst them. They generally fell below the Grimms' interest, too harmless, too weak, too useless. Ignored, except when the Endezeichen went on another one of their rampages. And yet this one, he wasn’t just unafraid of Burkhardt, which was reasonable, even the smartest of people could start to relax around a predator until the day they stopped being careful and got bit by their trust. But that wasn’t going on here, the Eisbiber actively trusted Burkhardt to care, to protect him and his people. And Burkhardt didn’t seem to want to disappoint that trust. It went against everything Hotch had ever learned, it was almost unnatural. The Eisbiber seemed terrified when he finally noticed Hotch, jumping behind the Grimm of all things for protection.
“It’s ok, Bud, he’s with the FBI.”
Bud didn’t seem to be quite ready to believe it, even as he left while begging the Grimm to just look into things and stop the other Grimm before people stopped trusting Burkhardt, because apparently people did trust him.
“How did that happen?” Hotch asked.
“What? Bud? He found out I was a Grimm when he came to fix my refrigerator and things just went from there. They’re terrible gossips, or so I've been told.”
Burkhardt was obviously protecting someone, but whom? Someone he didn't trust Hotchner to know about, so it obviously wasn't Griffin.
They dealt with the case, after that, working together. Turned out their killer wasn’t a Grimm at all. Just a Lebensauger who couldn’t accept his own nature. Admiring Burkhardt to such a degree that he pushed the identity of a Grimm on himself, not based on Burkhardt, but on the stories his parents had told him about Grimms, stories that Burkhardt of course fell way short of.
Hotch couldn’t help but stare as a Wesen thanked a Grimm for saving his life, and the Grimm just awkwardly accepted his hug and thanks.
“My mother died when I was younger,” Hotch said when the three of them were alone, just him, the Grimm, and the Grimm’s partner, relaxing around the predator. “My father would never tell me who was responsible, but he would stiffen when the word Grimm came up.”
Burkhardt nodded, closed his eyes and looked down. Griffin grunted, as if dealing with something he wasn’t sure of.
“I’m not like that,” the Grimm said. “I didn’t even know I was a Grimm untill about a year ago, when my aunt came in town, she was dying. She said… she wanted to protect me from the family’s curse, she hoped it would skip a generation."
“Marie Kessler.”
“I got pulled into things after that. But I got lucky, I had a friend who told me about Wesen, he told me things that weren’t in my ancestor’s books. Bits that my ancestors would never have bothered to think about. He got me past the fear, made me realize that I couldn't judge a book by its cover, no matter what I thought I saw."
Hotch stood still, demanding more.
“He’s a Blutbad, a Wieder Blutbad, won’t harm anyone. I don’t know what I’d be like as a Grimm if I hadn’t had him to explain things to me.”
A Grimm trained by a Blutbad… A Grimm who befriended a Blutbad. It shouldn’t happen, just like a Steinadler shouldn’t trust a Grimm. Yet the more time he spent with Burkhardt the harder it became to distrust the young man who went beyond anything Hotch had ever learned.
G is for Grimm, like S is for Steinadler and maybe, just maybe he should stop being a coward and start being true to his heritage. When he left, Hotch stared at his file, the one about Endezeichen Grimms. Two cases in St. Louis, five in New York, three in… dozens over the past few years. But rarely if ever as openly as the ones in Portland. It made him wonder though, how many of those killers had really been Grimms, and how many just thought they were.
He closed the folder with a heavy heart and went back home. He had a story to tell to his son, regardless of what Jack ended up being. After all, how could Jack ever deal with the world, if he didn't know who his father really was.
-END-
Prompt:
Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise
Notes for those interested, here are some definitions of the particular Grimm terms mentioned in the fic: (descriptions come from the Grimm Wiki)
Alptraumer: a book of fairytales for Wesen kids, used to describe the different kind of Wesen, and in particular the worst of the worst, each one identifying with a particular letter. For example, G stands for Grimm.
Blutbad, a wolflike Wesen that is the basis for the story of the Big Bad Wolf. They tend to be highly violent and are feared by Wesen and Grimm alike. Some Blutbaden choose not to live this violent lifestyle, reform, and attend a different church. They are known as Wieder Blutbaden
An Eisbiber is a beaver-like Wesen that are friendly and non violent, but are certainly very nosy. They have a tendency to display their guilt and their gratitude through excessive giftgiving.
Endezeichen Grimm are extremist Grimms who will kill, mutilate and massacre any wesen on their path, killing men, women, children and pets alike. They are a Wesen’s worst fear
A Geier is a highly sadistic vulture-like Wesen.
Grimms are several families of special people, who possess incredible powers, such as being able to see the true form of Wesen, even when they don't want them to. For centuries they have placed it upon themselves to police and hunt the Wesen population, to protect normal humans from the unknown threat around them. They can become extreme, corrupted and used by certain wesen fractions against others and are feared by most species of Wesen
A Klaustreich is a alley cat-like Wesen. They are typically known for being jerks in the Wesen community.
A Lebensauger is a lamprey-like Wesen. Due to their hideous appearance, they often experience self-loathing and even identity crisis, preferring to become what they want to be. They are generally considered to be amongst the most repulsive of Wesen and are subsequently known to be prone to substance abuse
A Mauzhertz is a mouse-like Wesen that are harmless and shy. They possess beady eyes, whiskers jutting out from a pointed nose, and oversized teeth. The Mauzhertz is very timid, often times afraid of its own shadow. Mauzhertzen are very predictable which makes them easy prey. Mauzhertzen are a friendly species, and will go out of their way to avoid trouble
A Reinigen is a rat-like Wesen that exist at the bottom of the Grimm creature food chain. They are similar to rats in that they are scavengers, not being the least bit picky about what they eat, and are rarely violent unless pushed to the limit. They possess a musical ability that enables them to mesmerize and control rats' behavior
A Schakal is a jackal-like Wesen that is notorious for jewel thievery and eating human infants. They are aggressive, cruel and violent, and will let nothing stand in the way of their goals. Schakal are seemingly social Wesen, and are commonly seen working with groups of their own kind, however there is often an air of mistrust and hostility amongst them.
A Steinadler is a hawk-like Wesen (though in German their name means Golden Eagle). They are renown for being smart and have exceptional vision, thanks to having five times more visual sensory cells per millimeter of the retina than humans. Steinadlers also have special colored oils in their eyes that reflect certain wavelengths of light. These special ocular biologic factors endow Steinadlers with near perfect night vision, and most likely a whole host of other ocular abilities. Steinadler are incredibly fast creatures but not superhuman strong. The Steinadler are known for their ability to pokerfacedly exhibit simultaneously friendliness and sternness, so it is impossible to tell whose side one is on. The ability to sternly influence others as though they were subordinate friends makes the Steinadler excellent military figures. They have a reputation for being heroes and adventurers.
Wesen is a term used to describe the creatures visible to the Grimms. They are the basis not only of the fairy tales that the Brothers Grimm have compiled, but also of the many legends and folklore from many cultures
Ziegevolk are goat-like Wesen that are also known as "Bluebeards". They like to be in the public eye. The Ziegevolk are rather meek goat-like creatures that give off a scent, a pheromone, that is excreted from sweat glands that attract women to them, the sent makes women find them irresistible. They do not intend to kill their victims and are considered lovers, not fighters. They are commonly celebrities in Hollywood and many are gameshow hosts. Ziegevolk are often found in bars, where they use their pheromones to lure and seduce victims. Ziegevolk that eat toads are not breeders, but herders, a rarity amongst the species. Unlike breeders, who just seduce women, herders kidnap and rape them. The toads allow the Ziegevolk to give off a more potent pheromone that attracts a victim more easily. They can use this enhanced attraction to force women to do whatever they say.