Work Text:
~o~
Detective Nichole Burkhardt sat at her desk, staring at her computer monitor, lost in thought.
She'd been staring at the picture of a beautiful young woman for the last ten minutes, trying to figure out why someone would kill her. She and her partner—Hank Griffin—had spent time with her family and interviewed her friends and co-workers, and everyone had said Leanne Tarver was a sweet, gentle person who got along with everyone. She was a hard worker and a good friend, but Nikki simply couldn't get over how beautiful she was, even in her DMV photo. No one looked that good in their DMV photo, least of all Nikki, whose own license sported photographic evidence of one of the worst days of her life.
Nikki sighed.
"You okay over there, partner?" Hank asked.
She flicked her eyes over to meet his. "Do you think I'm pretty?"
"What?"
"Nevermind," she muttered, shaking her head as she tried to refocus on the witness statements she'd been reviewing.
Hank chuckled. "Not feeling insecure, are you?"
She glared at him.
"Seriously?"
Nikki sighed, dropping back in her chair as she felt the burn of a hot blush cover her cheeks. On some abstract level, she knew she wasn't ugly, per se. But she was tall for a woman—a shade under 5' 10"—and she kept her raven hair short for expediency more than anything. And while she could look in the mirror and see the grey eyes and high cheekbones, she couldn't see herself as beautiful.
Her mother had always said that beauty was fleeting and not to be trusted, and intellectually that was all well and good. But a girl liked to hear that she was pretty every once in a while. Of course, Nikki had always been the skinned-knees and sneakers sort of kid, so maybe it was no surprise that she struggled to see herself as anything other than the tomboy she'd been as a girl.
She looked back up at Hank, squirming a bit under his scrutiny. It was an old conversation between them, and becoming a Grimm hadn't made it any easier. Eisbiber running scared from her really hadn't helped, either.
"What?" she asked again.
"You have a badge and a gun, Nikki," he said, pointing at her. "Anybody gives you flack, you can hold your own."
"Right," she said, frowning. "Because that doesn't scare the shit out of people."
Hank dropped back in his seat, heaving a good-natured sigh. "Say it again."
Nikki rolled her eyes but did as he asked. "Hank, tell me I'm pretty."
He laid a hand over his chest. "Were I unwed, I would take you in a manly fashion."
"'Cause I'm pretty?"
"'Cause you're pretty."
Nikki chuckled, wadding up a post-it note and tossing it at him. He was sweet, in his way, and she was grateful that Hank didn't judge her for this insecurity she couldn't seem to shake.
"You need to work on your technique, Detective."
Both of them turned to see Sergeant Wu headed their way, his usual smirk firmly in place.
"What?" Hank asked, looking mildly affronted. "It's Firefly."
Wu shook his head. "'A manly fashion'?"
Hank just shrugged. "I don't write 'em, man. I just quote 'em."
"'Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.'"
"That's beautiful, Wu," Nikki said, smiling up at him.
Hank snorted. "That one of yours?"
"Nope." Wu shook his head. "Khalil Gibran."
Nikki whistled as she turned to her partner. "Quoting nineteenth century poets. He's got you beat."
"Whatever," Hank said, shrugging, a smile on his face. "I've never had any complaints before."
"I rest my case," Wu muttered.
"What have you got for us?" Hank asked, obviously attempting to change the subject.
"I've got a witness," Wu said with a huge grin.
"We've got plenty of those, in case you hadn't noticed," Nikki said as she waved her hand at the piles of paper on her desk.
"Yeah, but do your witnesses have video?"
Both Hank and Nikki perked up at that. "Who is it?" Hank asked.
"Old lady across the street," Wu said, flipping open his notebook. "Georgia Landess. Apparently she's a paranoid old bat. Had her son set up a webcam on the front porch."
"And why are we just now finding out about it?" Nikki stood up, grabbing her gun and badge as she watched Hank do the same.
"She just got back from a trip to Phoenix," Wu said. He tore off a page from his notebook, handing it to Nikki as Hank moved towards the door. "Have fun."
"Thanks, Wu," Nikki called out as she and Hank headed for the parking lot. "You're the best!"
"Yeah, yeah," Wu said, waving them off as they disappeared around the corner.
~o~
"I just don't get how you kill your best friend over a guy," Nikki said as they climbed the stairs on their way back to their desks.
"Don't look at me," Hank said, shaking his head. "My ex-wives have wanted to kill me at various times, but not usually each other over me."
She chuckled. "You sure do know how to pick 'em."
They rounded the corner, and Nikki stopped dead in her tracks, Hank stopping right behind her, just barely avoiding a crash. Her eyes went wide at what was sitting on her desk.
A dozen red roses, in a crystal vase, completely obscured the disaster she'd left behind a couple of hours before.
"Somebody's got an admirer," Hank said as he moved around her and headed for his desk.
Nikki approached her desk warily, as if the roses were going to jump out of the vase and attack her.
"You gonna open the card or what?"
She shot him a mock-glare, then reached out and snatched the card out of the middle of the arrangement, sliding the single sheet out of its envelope and flicking her eyes over the text. A slow smile bloomed on her face as she recognized the writing.
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Nichole is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Her smile softened as she fingered the words. It was sweet, and she had to wonder how he'd known what she and Hank had been talking about. She'd bet good money it was Wu. The guy was a closet romantic.
"So?" Hank asked. She glanced over the flowers to Hank, seated at his desk, an expectant look on his face. "Who are they from?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," she said, winking at Hank. She tucked the card into the back pocket of her jeans and shed her leather jacket onto her chair. "I'm going to let Renard know what we've got."
Hank just smirked at her, his head already buried in his computer. She smiled, then turned and headed for the Captain's office. She rapped lightly on the door, pushing through when she heard a quiet, "Come in."
Nikki closed the door behind her, leaning back as she waited for Renard to look up.
"Detective," he said when he noticed who'd come in. "What have you got?"
She stepped over to the credenza, leaning back against it as she propped her hands on the surface next to her. "Turns out it was the best friend. They were both into the same guy, and I guess she'd been down that road one too many times."
Sean Renard leaned back in his chair. "You're sure?"
Nikki nodded. "We've got video of the BFF arriving at the victim's house around the time of the murder, and leaving shortly thereafter. Mrs. Landess—the lady across the street—has a webcam pointed at her front porch, just in case the UPS guy chucks a package at her front door and breaks something."
They shared a chuckle. There'd been a run on security cameras and the like when the first video had gone viral a few months ago. It was a boon to cops, because there was nothing sweeter than incontrovertible visual evidence of a crime.
"Did you bring her in?"
"The unis are bringing her in now," she said. "She's not talking, but we don't really need her to."
"Good." He paused, waiting for her to go on. When she didn't, he raised an eyebrow. "Anything else?"
She smiled at him. "Thank you."
She could see him debating with himself before a small smile tipped his lips. "You're welcome."
Nikki pushed off the credenza, moving around to face him as he spun his chair in her direction and rose to meet her. She slipped her hands up over the lapels of his charcoal suit, running them up to tangle in his hair.
"You're too good to me."
"On the contrary," he said as he circled his arms around her waist, pulling her close. "You deserve so much more. The roses were just a simple gesture."
"Wu?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
He tipped his head. "Maybe. I might have heard something from someone."
She pushed up on her toes, never more grateful for Sean's height than in these moments when she had to reach up to him. She saw him flick his eyes out to the bullpen, then back to her, and she could see his desire for her reflected in his eyes.
He bent down, capturing her lips in a gentle kiss. She sighed into him, the weight of the day's cares dissipating in the tender affection this man was showing her.
When he pulled back, she smiled up into those fiery green eyes she loved so well.
"You are a Prince among men."
They shared a chuckle at the irony of her statement.
"And you are my princess," he said, dropping a kiss onto her upturned lips. He reached up, cupping her cheek in his hand. "The next time you're feeling 'unpretty', let me know. I'll gladly order up a hothouse full of roses for you. Deal?"
Her smile turned radiant. "Deal."
"Good. Now, I believe you owe me a report about a love triangle gone wrong?"
"You take all the fun out of things," she said, but her smile took the sting out of her words.
"Somebody's got to keep an eye on things," he said. "I'll see you later?"
"Later," she agreed.
She pushed up, stealing one more kiss before she pulled away and headed for the door. Once back in the bullpen, she caught sight of Hank, sitting at his desk with Wu perched on the edge, both of them grinning like idiots.
"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving them off as she took her seat, shifting the roses to one side so she could see her computer. "Show's over, boys."
Both men chuckled, and she could see the look they shared, but they didn't say anything, just returned to their work with stupid smiles on their faces.
She shook her head and tried to focus on the report she needed to write. And if her eyes drifted to the flowers every once in a while, well, who could blame her? Today was definitely not an unpretty day. The roses proved it.