Throw Away The Key

2. Days Go By

Angelina's funeral is on Friday but Monroe doesn't go. There's a list of reasons why he doesn't show up, the most glaring of which being that fact that he smells like Nick. His clothes, his furniture, his house, hell, basically everything he owns now smells like Nick thanks to the Grimm's consistent presence in his life.

He's washed and disinfected nearly everything that's not nailed to the floor in an effort to get rid of the smell but it's no use; he can still smell Nick's scent clinging to his clothes and skin like it's a part of him now.

The thought makes him angry and he growls at nothing as he sits in the empty kitchen. He hates how much faith he put in Nick, how much trust. He was a fool. Nick is a Grimm, killing Grimm creatures is built into his DNA like a written code in a computer. He should have known better, should have seen it coming. It was only a matter of time before Nick realized his true potential and then he'd be just as bad as the Grimms from the stories his mother told him as a child. He hates that Nick had wormed his way into his life, one day at a time, and now it shoots down to his core every time he thinks about him. It hurts deep, aching and raw like salt being rubbed into an open wound, and he knows he has no one to blame but himself. He should have known better…

He sends a wreath to the funeral and vows to offer his condolences to Angelina's family once the Grimm's smell is out of his clothes. He feels it would be somehow disrespectful to show up to pay his respects reeking of the thing that killed Angelina; that wouldn't turn out well for anyone involved.

He's been keeping himself busy, trying to keep his mind off of Angelina and Nick and the stabbing pain of betrayal he feels every time he thinks of the younger man. He'd gotten a commission on Wednesday and it had been like a Godsend. The clock was an antique, something that would take all of his concentration and skill in order to repair it, and he had thrown himself into his work for the past three days. He welcomes the work, it helps him think about anything other than what's going on in his life at the moment.

The TV is on in the living room, dull background noise that washes over him in electrostatic waves. Some game show is playing idly on the screen, the colors bright and flashing and the music happy and cheerful. The host is talking to one of the contestants and she's excitedly telling him where she's from. Monroe ignores her and tinkers with a few tiny screws connecting the hands of the clock to the face. He'd told the owner that the clock would be repaired by Monday and he fully intends to keep that promise.

The game show shifts after about twenty minutes in favor of the evening news and there's a headlining story about the home invasion Monday night. Monroe pauses what he's doing for the briefest second, trying his best not to listen to the story presented on the screen. The anchor is doing an interview with the family involved, asking them about their experience and for details of the break in. Monroe hears them refer to Nick as "their savior" and "a hero" and it makes him sick to his stomach. Do these people not realize that "their savior" murdered a woman in cold blood? Do they know that Nick's "heroic" acts left someone dead with a grieving family? He's so disgusted by their praise and admiration of the Grimm that he stands up and walks into the living room to turn the TV off.

The family onscreen looks like the tumbled directly out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The husband is sitting in a stiff-backed chair across from the anchor, holding his wife's hand in his own. A pretty little girl who looks no older than four is sitting in her mother's lap, clutching the sleeves of her dress like she's afraid something is going to pop out from behind the chair. Next to her are two boys, about seven and nine, and they're standing quietly beside their mother's chair, watching the anchor with wide eyes. Everyone in the family is blond and blue-eyed and they could be poster children for the Aryan race but they look like a perfectly happy, normal family. The camera shifts a bit and with it their outward appearance does as well: they're all Bauerschwein.