The guards threw Trubel back into her room and left her handcuffs on, guessing that she was more dangerous now that she was upset. They were right. If she had a chance of doing any damage, she would have beelined for the Rißfleisch without hesitation... But she didn't have a chance while handcuffed and surrounded by five additional guards, so the journey back to her room was uneventful.

When the guards left Trubel alone, she crumpled on the floor next to her bed. She tried to hold back the fresh round of tears she felt coming on, but eventually, she didn't have the energy to keep it up, and she let the tears run down her face. Trubel had her legs pressed to her chest. She would have been hugging her knees, but since her wrists were pinned behind her back, she was only able to set her forehead on her knees to bury her face while she cried.

That's how Damien found her when he came into the room. Trubel looked up at him and regretted that she wasn't able to wipe the tears off of her face; she hated looking weak.

Damien was holding yet another tray of food that had the same contents as the one that Trubel had thrown at the wall. As Damien thought of it, he looked at the corner of Trubel's room and noticed that someone had already cleaned up the mess. He then set the tray on the desk before walking over to Trubel and wrapping one of his hands around her arm to pull her to her feet; it made it easier for him to unlock her handcuffs. When that was done, Trubel wiped the tears from her cheeks and crossed her arms. Unlike the other times where the action made her look moody and stubborn, the arms across her chest made her look weaker like they were the only things holding her together.

"What do you want?" Trubel asked Damien, forgetting that he had decided not to talk to her again.

Damien said nothing but pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.

If Trubel had read it, she would have seen, "Nick is okay. I took him to Lexi. He doesn't blame you at all and thinks you saved his life by telling the others that he knew where the book was. He's worried about you. Are you going to be okay?"

But Trubel didn't read it. She took the paper from him, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it in the same corner she had thrown the tray of food. "Get out of here," she commanded him. She sounded angry, but it looked like she was going to lose another battle of trying not to cry.

Damien didn't move from where he was standing. He eyed Trubel with concern.

She wasn't happy with him. She walked up to him and got in his face. "I realized today that I'm never going to see my friends again. And Nick is going to die, probably in front of me," Trubel said. Her voice cracked with sadness. "And it's my fault. It's my fault that he's even here." Damien's face twisted with pain and guilt while Trubel suddenly began sobbing again. "You and your friends have taken away everything I've ever cared about." Trubel backed away from Damien and held onto the bed frame while she doubled over and sobbed, "I've lost everything." She sunk down to her knees. "And all I want is for you to talk to me," she cried.

Damien couldn't take it. "Trubel, I'm sorry," he said earnestly. He kneeled down in front of Trubel and she sobbed into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so sorry," he repeated. "We can talk if you want."

Even during her breakdown, Trubel was still questioning what the deal was with Damien. She was pretty sure she shouldn't let him hold her while she cried... But damn, if he was merely manipulating her, he was killing it. She told herself time and time again not to trust him, and here she was sobbing on the floor in his arms. What was she doing? She had only known him for a day?!

There was so much that didn't add up about him. He didn't talk to her, but he talked to Nick, and then he talked to her and then he didn't... Trubel's mind was swimming with confusion, and it didn't help that she was so emotional. Trubel thought more about Damien.

He was nice to her and Nick, and even seemed to like them. But if he liked Grimms, why was he working for an organization that killed them? He was just a Fuchsbau - not anything special that the Reapers would need on their side. The Reapers wouldn't force a boring Fuchsbau to work for them, so that would mean Damien was there by choice, right?

Why would he choose to be here? Trubel thought to herself.

Maybe he didn't like Grimms. Maybe it was all an act. That would make more sense with the other information that Trubel knew about him. And that meant he was playing her.

Trubel didn't care anymore.

"What do you want to talk about?" Damien prompted gently. Trubel pulled away from him, wiped more tears away, and stared at his sympathetic, smiling face.

"I don't know," Trubel admitted. She hadn't thought that she could get this far, and now that Damien was speaking to her, she didn't know what to do.

Damien was still smiling. "We'll figure it out," he told her. "But first, why don't you eat something?"

"Why do you care?" Trubel asked him, sounding suspicious.

"If you keep asking me hard questions, I'm not going to talk to you anymore," Damien joked. "But if you must know, I think you should eat something because you haven't eaten anything for a while."

Damien stood up and held out his hand to help Trubel to her feet. She took it, but warned Damien, "I still don't trust you."

"You shouldn't," he confessed. He let go of Trubel's hand when she was standing and added, "But there's no harm in pretending." Trubel thought about it and decided that Damien was right; she was confident that she could win a fight with a Fuchsbau if Damien ever tried anything. "C'mon," Damien said, picking up the tray of food and setting it on the bed next to where he sat. He used his hand to pat the spot on the mattress that was across from him. Trubel sat where he had gestured and eyed the food. "Are you going to make me eat some, too?" Damien asked her jokingly. "Because I will if that's what you want."

"What is it going to do? Kill me?" Trubel asked, rolling her eyes. She was growing less and less concerned with her mortality the more certain she was of her nearby demise.

"That's the spirit," Damien muttered.

Trubel picked up a plastic fork and used it to spear one of the small potatoes. "Why don't you tell me about you?" Trubel suggested as a conversation topic. It was a good place to start. She had so many questions about him, and she also didn't want to slip up and say something about herself that her captors could use to hurt her.

"Um," Damien said uncomfortably. "I'm not that interesting. I was a boring kid. I went to high school and college like anyone else. There's not much to me."

"Well, how'd you end up here?" Trubel asked.

"That's another one of those hard questions," Damien informed her with a nervous expression on his face.

"And you aren't going to answer it?" Trubel guessed.

"Nope," Damien said, grinning. He was trying to act playful now, but Trubel could see the wary look in his eyes while he smiled. He was keeping a secret. In fact, he was probably keeping many secrets. "Why don't you tell me about you? You're interesting," Damien told her. "From what I've gathered so far," he amended quickly, sounding oddly nervous.

"Sure, I'll tell you everything you can use against me, spy," Trubel sneered before eating more food. "That's a good idea," she tacked on sarcastically.

Damien rolled his eyes. "Then tell me about something that's not important... Something that makes you happy to talk about. Like that guy. What's his name? Angel?"

"Angel was important," Trubel snapped at him.

"That's not what I meant," Damien said apologetically. "I meant, they can't use him against you since he's dead. He's the one thing you can talk about without consequences. He made you happy, didn't he?"

"Of course he did," Trubel confessed a little louder than a whisper. Her eyes seemed like they were looking at something far away.

"Well, maybe you could tell me stories about him, so you can forget that you're here for a little while," Damien suggested as he gestured around Trubel's depressing prison cell.

Damien had a point. "Fine," Trubel agreed. "I'll tell you a few stories."

*************

Angel sat on his bed with his back against the headboard and his computer on his lap. He looked up from the computer screen when he heard a knock at the door.

"Yeah?" he asked.

The door opened, revealing an exhausted Trubel standing in the hallway. Her posture was slumped, her eyelids looked as if they were in danger of shutting, and she had a cut on her cheek that was still bloody.

"You ready to go over the assignment?" Trubel asked tiredly.

Angel set his laptop on the mattress and climbed off the bed. "Only if you are," he said with concern. He wanted to prepare for their dangerous upcoming job, but Trubel didn't look like she would make it.

Trubel walked into the room and shut Angel's door behind him. "I am," she assured without much enthusiasm.

Angel examined Trubel's half-asleep expression. "You sure?"

"Why?" Trubel asked defensively.

Like Trubel, Angel had a habit of being too blunt. He answered simply with, "Because you look like hell."

"Training was a little rough today," Trubel said grumpily. "But I'm fine. Let's review the assignment."

"Okay," Angel said while shrugging. He moved back to where he had been sitting on his bed and set his computer back on his lap. He motioned to the spot on the bed next to him while grinning at Trubel. "Have a seat."

"Maybe we should go to the briefing room..." Trubel suggested, looking uncomfortably at the empty mattress space next to Angel.

"You aren't scared of me, are you?" Angel joked while grinning at her.

"No," Trubel answered aggressively.

"Good, 'cause my bed's a lot more comfortable than those damn metal chairs they have down the hall," Angel explained. "Get over here."

Trubel hesitated before sighing and sitting next to Angel on the bed.

They got to work quickly, going through databases with information about their targets, reviewing maps of the locations they would be staying at while on assignment, and going over the weaknesses of the types of Wesen they were likely to encounter. They also went through old video logs from agents that had infiltrated the specific Black Claw cells that they would be destroying, hoping any information that past records could provide would give them an edge when they left the compound. It was very dense material to work through.

Trubel didn't notice that she was falling asleep.

*************

Trubel opened her eyes and saw the lamp was left on. She rolled over to shut it off when she realized it was on the wrong side of the room. Her lamp was to the right of the bed, not the left... Trubel examined the room further and realized it wasn't hers at all. It was Angel's. She fell asleep while working on the assignment with him! She sat up in a panic and saw Angel asleep on the cement floor of his room, using the sweatshirt he had been wearing as a pillow.

A warm and unfamiliar fuzzy feeling rose in Trubel's chest, but she did her best to smother it.

"Angel?" she whispered.

Angel sat up, startled, and looked around until his eyes rested on Trubel. "Oh. Hey," he greeted groggily. "What time is it?" he asked as he yawned.

Trubel checked the clock on the side table. "It's 5 am."

"Ugh," Angel groaned.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Trubel asked him, sounding irritated in an attempt to avoid sounding guilty.

"You looked tired," Angel said matter-of-factly as he shrugged.

Trubel sounded embarrassed when she said, "I was, but that doesn't mean you should sleep on the floor."

Angel rose to his feet as he said, "It's fine. You know, sleeping on the floor is actually a lot..." The two Grimms looked down at Angel's sweatshirt that was balled up on the concrete floor. "Less comfortable than it looks," Angel confessed, smiling comedically.

Trubel and Angel both laughed.

"Sorry," Trubel apologized. "And sorry for waking you up, too. I just wanted to let you know that you can have your bed back." She climbed off of Angel's bed. Angel grabbed his sweatshirt from the floor and said, "It's okay," he assured as he stood up.

Trubel walked toward the door and said, "I guess I'll see you later." She was about to leave, but Angel stopped her.

"Wait!" he yelled after her quickly. Trubel turned to him, and he continued talking. "You want to grab breakfast first?"

"Sure," Trubel said with a smile. The two Grimms made their way to the compound's mess hall.

*************

Trubel stood in a fighting stance and curled her fingers toward herself in a challenge. "Let's see what you've got," she said with an amused grin.

Angel shook his head while also grinning. "You want me to hit you?"

"If you can," Trubel challenged.

Angel sized Trubel up, glancing over her posture, her expression, her gaze. Quickly, he ran at her and threw a punch which Trubel dodged. Trubel threw a punch of her own which Angel redirected with his arms. Trubel used the opening to headbutt him in the nose and then kick him in the stomach. Angel was pushed backward and bent over in pain, but remained on his feet.

"Is that all you've got?" Trubel taunted.

Angel straightened up and wiped away the blood that was coming out of his nose with the back of his hand.

"I didn't know we were fighting dirty," Angel said. Trubel wasn't holding back at all.

"Hey, when we're out there, no one's going to take it easy on us," Trubel explained defensively. "We have to be prepared for anything."

"Fair enough," Angel allowed. His nose had already stopped bleeding - one of the perks of being a Grimm. Angel sniffled, took up a fighting stance, and said, "Let's go again."

Trubel lunged at Angel and threw a punch, but Angel dodged it. Trubel threw another punch, and Angel was able to catch her arm and bend it behind her back. Trubel brought her chin to her chest and then forcefully threw her head back so Angel's nose was crushed by the back of Trubel's head. Angel winced and let Trubel go, and Trubel turned around quickly to punch Angel in the face. However, Angel was able to dodge it by jumping back. By then, Trubel was already attempting to kick Angel in the side. Angel was able to grab her leg and pulled it so Trubel was thrown off balance. As Trubel fell, she grabbed Angel's shoulders and dragged him down onto the floor with her. They were both sprawled out on the floor, faceup, laughing to themselves.

"Man, they weren't kidding about you," Angel complained, breathing heavily. There were some rumors going around regarding Trubel's no-mercy reputation.

Trubel laughed breathlessly. "Want to go again?" she said, rising to her feet. She extended a hand to help Angel stand up.

Angel smiled as he said, "Sure." He took Trubel's hand and pulled quickly just as he brought his leg up to kick Trubel's shins. Trubel fell forward and landed on top of Angel, but Angel was able to roll them both so Trubel was under him, pinned to the ground.

"That's what I get for trying to help you?" Trubel asked Angel in disbelief.

"According to you, we aren't playing by the rules," Angel said, grinning down at Trubel who was still underneath him.

"You're right," Trubel admitted. "We aren't." She brought her leg up and kneed Angel in the groin. He groaned and fell to the floor next to Trubel. Trubel climbed to her feet and looked down at Angel as he groaned in pain.

"That was cruel," Angel complained from the ground.

Trubel shrugged. "That was realistic. I bet you won't make that same mistake again."

"I won't," Angel promised. He rose slowly to his feet again and looked up at Trubel. "One more time?"

Trubel smiled. "You like getting hurt, huh?"

"I like getting even," Angel corrected, smiling.

Both Grimms measured each other up, wondering who would make the first move. This time, it was Trubel. She ran at Angel and threw a series of punches which Angel was able to dodge. Angel was also throwing punches, none of which made contact. The two Grimms threw more punches and kicks back and forth. Every now and then, one would hit its mark, but the two Grimms seemed to be at a stalemate.

Eventually, Angel was able to sweep his leg behind Trubel's feet and knock them out from under her. As soon as Trubel hit the ground, she did the same move, knocking Angel to the ground. Once again, they were both on the floor, out of breath and laughing.

"You punch like a girl," Trubel laughed.

"Hey!" Angel objected.

Trubel turned her head toward Angel and said, "From me, that's a compliment..." She stared up at the ceiling. "Girls are vicious," she commented.

"I believe it," Angel laughed, staring pointedly at Trubel. Trubel shoved Angel and the two Grimms burst out into laughter.

They were still laughing when the door to the training room opened up. Miguel stood in the doorway, looking at the laughing Grimms with an unamused expression.

"Is something funny?" Miguel asked with disapproval.

Trubel and Angel immediately stopped laughing, realizing that they were in trouble. Angel quickly said, "No, sir" as he stood up. Trubel followed his example and also stood. The Grimms looked on at Miguel, waiting to see what he would do next.

"What were you two doing?" Miguel asked angrily.

"We were just..." Angel began anxiously. "Training."

"Training?" Miguel asked. "Is that what you call it?"

"We were," Trubel said defensively, sounding just as grumpy as Miguel.

"And that's why you were laughing?" Miguel asked skeptically. Angel looked uncomfortably down at the floor, but Trubel kept her angry glare on Miguel. "Let me explain this to you both," Miguel began furiously. "The world is at war. There are lives at stake, and you two want to laugh and screw around instead of doing your job. I won't stand for it!"

"If we thought murder was funny we'd be working for Black Claw, not you," Trubel growled angrily. "So stop telling us how we should and shouldn't cope with a job that's so hard that you can't do it yourself even with your high and mighty attitude."

"I can do your job," Miguel disagreed, clearly offended.

"Then, why don't you?" Trubel hissed back. She bumped Miguel's shoulder on her way out of the room, leaving Angel with Miguel.

"I should fire her for that," Miguel said.

Angel looked just as angry as Trubel had. "If anything, that outburst tells you that you should keep her." Angel started walking out of the room but paused in the doorway and turned to Miguel. "She won't let anything or anyone get in the way of what she needs to do... And I won't either."

Angel walked out of the room and found Trubel waiting in the hallway for him.

"Nice speech," she told him with a grin.

Angel pretended to bow. "Same to you," he approved. They walked together down the hallway toward the mess hall.

*************

"What are you doing?" Angel asked as Trubel stacked hotel room glasses on top of each other in front of the door.

"If anyone tries to come in here, we'll hear them," Trubel explained. It was true. If someone attempted to open the door at all, it would cause the precarious stack of glasses to fall and shatter on the ground.

"Sweet," Angel approved. He stood up, walked toward Trubel, and started undoing his belt.

Trubel stared at him with horror and confusion before telling him, "I don't know what you're doing, but if you value your life at all, you're not doing what it looks like you are."

Angel pulled his belt from the loops of his jeans and chuckled. "Only in your dreams," he joked. He started tying his belt around the hinge above the door that hotel rooms had to make sure the doors can't be left open. "This'll make it even harder to open the door if someone tries to." Angel turned to Trubel. "You aren't the only one with little tricks."

Trubel rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, you're impressed, aren't you?" Angel asked her, following behind Trubel as she started unpacking her suitcase.

"Just a little," Trubel admitted. She turned to Angel with an unamused expression. "But the next time you start unbuckling your belt in front of me, I could use an explanation first."

Angel laughed at her. "That's fair."

*************

"So you and Angel were just partners assigned to fight Black Claw?" Damien asked Trubel.

Trubel looked down at her fidgeting hands, and an unintentional smile spread across her face. "It started out that way," she confessed quietly.

"And how did it finish?" Damien asked, furrowing his brow with confusion.

Trubel looked up at Damien whose expression looked innocently curious. "Why are you so interested in my dating life?"

"You were dating Angel?" Damien asked Trubel, ignoring her question. Trubel thought he might be jealous. She clenched her teeth with frustration, realizing she had given away a detail that she hadn't meant to.

"You didn't answer my question," Trubel said tensely.

Damien grinned. "You didn't answer mine, either." Trubel glared at him, and Damien succumbed. "But I like the way you look when you talk about good things. You look happy."

"I used to be happy," Trubel admitted, thinking about Angel again.

*************

"Angel, please," Trubel pleaded as Angel speed-walked down the hallway. "You don't need to do this tonight. They'll still be out there tomorrow. I'll go with you."

Angel turned around to face Trubel who had been following close behind him. "If people are trying to kill me, I don't want to be hard to find. I want them dead, sooner rather than later," Angel said, sounding uncharacteristically serious.

"I do, too, but you aren't thinking clearly right now," Trubel told him. Angel didn't think he had ever heard Trubel sound so desperate. "I want them dead, not you."

"I'll be fine," Angel disagreed, shaking his head.

Trubel surprised him by sounding angry. "How can you say that with what we do every day? Do you think Joe or Rachel or Erin expected to die yesterday? Or do you think they were just as cocky and sure of themselves as you are right now?" she asked aggressively.

"It's different. I'm a Grimm," Angel disagreed again, unphased by Trubel's comments.

"What the hell does that matter?" Trubel demanded, still angry. Angel rolled his eyes, and Trubel punched him on the shoulder to get his attention. "Seriously. If you're up against twenty Wesen armed to the teeth what difference does it make being a Grimm."

"I'll figure it out," Angel said stubbornly. He turned to walk down the hallway, but Trubel grabbed his arm.

"Not alone," Trubel told him just as stubbornly.

"I don't want you involved in this," Angel said. He already seemed less angry than he had been moments ago. He was starting to sound desperate like Trubel.

"Are you stupid? I'm already involved, just as much as you," Trubel yelled at him.

"People don't want you dead," Angel pointed out.

"But they want you dead," Trubel argued. "And that matters to me." Trubel let go of Angel's arm in an effort to put some distance between Angel and herself. "You matter to me," she said, scowling at the floor in embarrassment. She didn't understand her feelings.

Angel reached down and grabbed Trubel's hand. She pulled it away. "Whatever," she said. Her voice was angry and sad all at once. "It's not like I'm going to change your mind, anyway." This time, Trubel turned to walk away, and Angel grabbed her arm.

"Hey," Angel said, pulling her closer so she would face him. "Your opinion matters to me and so do you," Angel said gently. Trubel stared at Angel in disbelief, surprised that whatever feelings she was feeling were also being experienced by Angel. Angel pulled Trubel into a hug, and she wrapped her arms tightly around him. "I'm sorry," he told her, still squeezing her tight. "I'm with you."

"Okay," Trubel told him with relief.

I'm with you, Trubel repeated in her mind. She liked the sound of whatever that was and held Angel tighter.

*************

"Would you like to join me?" Angel asked Trubel from his hotel bed. He patted a spot next to where he was lying on the king-sized bed and grinned up at Trubel playfully.

"No," Trubel said grumpily. "I'm going to go tell the receptionist that the hotel screwed up our room," she said, walking toward the door.

"Is it really so bad having one king bed instead of two queens?" Angel asked Trubel.

"Uh, yeah," Trubel said as if the answer was obvious.

Angel rolled his eyes playfully. "Oh, don't tell me you're going all heart-of-stone on me again."

Trubel looked away from Angel in embarrassment. "I don't know what you mean," she denied. Her tone made it obvious that she was lying.

"Yeah, you do," Angel said confidently. "You're acting like you're an emotionless robot again. As I recall, I kind of matter to you, right?"

"So?" Trubel asked, not even attempting to deny anything that Angel said.

"So, I told you that you matter to me, too. You know, like I care about you, like you're important to me, like you and I could-" Angel tried to explain.

Trubel cut him off. "Don't say any more. I'm going to switch our rooms."

Trubel opened the door and walked down the hallway.

*************

"Angel!" Trubel yelled as Angel shouted in his sleep. Angel didn't wake up, so Trubel leaned over Angel's bed and shook his shoulders while she yelled his name again. Angel's eyes shot open, he sat up, and he started trying to push Trubel away from him. Trubel fought with him, eventually able to grab his wrists, and yelled, "Angel, stop it! It's me!" Angel stopped struggling and turned his gaze to Trubel's concerned face. "It's okay," Trubel said in a more gentle tone.

"Trubel?" Angel asked breathlessly.

Trubel let go of Angel once he recognized her and smiled reassuringly at him.

"Sorry," Angel apologized, sitting up straighter in his bed.

"I have nightmares, too," Trubel told him.

Angel sighed heavily before asking Trubel, "Fun, aren't they?"

Trubel laughed. "Yeah..."

Angel ran his fingers through his hair, something he did often when he was stressed out. He looked sadly at Trubel and asked her, "Do you think we can ever get used to it?"

Trubel told Angel to move over and then sat down on the bed next to him. "What do you mean? The nightmares? Or almost getting killed all the time?"

"I'm talking about killing people," Angel clarified. "Do you think it'll ever, you know... be easy?"

Trubel leaned her head back against the headboard and stared at the ceiling as she thought about the answer. "I don't know..." she said.

"I hope not," Angel admitted. Trubel thought that was a strange thing to say, especially for a Grimm.

Trubel leaned her head on Angel's shoulder and sighed before climbing off of Angel's bed and into her own. "Let's try to get some sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow." Trubel shut off the lamp that she had turned on when Angel had started yelling in his sleep.

"'Night," Angel said.

"'Night."

*************

"Ow, ow, ow," Angel complained as Trubel ripped a large bandage off of his back; there was a set of deep claw marks that gouged their way down Angel's entire back. They were deep, too.

"Stop whining, you big baby. A little girl would complain less than you do," Trubel said callously while throwing the bandage into the garbage next to her.

"Maybe you would have when you were a little girl, but I think normal people would agree that this hurts like hell," Angel countered jokingly. Even in pain, he was laughing and able to maintain his good mood.

"You're saying I'm not normal?" Trubel asked him, not nearly as chipper as Angel sounded.

"Yep. Not even a little bit," Angel giggled. Trubel sprayed Angel's wound with an antiseptic that made the injury burn. "Ow! Geez, take it easy!" Angel gasped. Trubel chuckled quietly to herself.

Trubel started putting a new bandage on Angel's back and talked to him while she did it. "Relax," she said as if Angel was being overly dramatic. "I'm almost done." Angel sighed with relief while Trubel kept talking. "But until then, can I ask you something?"

Angel laughed. "Go for it. Anything to distract me from the fire raging on my back."

"What is this tattoo?" Trubel asked, tracing a tattoo on Angel's shoulder with her finger. It looked like a mixture between the symbol for pi and a lowercase "h."

"It means 'strength.'" Angel told her. "At least I hope it does," he laughed before continuing. "Anyway, it's a Japanese symbol that I got while I was on assignment in Tokyo. At the time, I had done assignments from Bangkok, Thailand, all the way through Asia and then made my way to Japan. It was only a few days before I was going back to Portugal, so I thought I'd get a momento."

"That's interesting," Trubel said, sounding like she approved.

"What's interesting is why I didn't get something from Thailand, too. My assignment in Bangkok was my favorite out of them all because I got to work with another Grimm," Angel told her. He shrugged to himself and told her, "Oh, well. I like my tattoo, anyway." Angel turned his head in Trubel's direction while she finished patching him up. "Do you have any ink?"

"No," Trubel told him. "When I was old enough to start thinking about tattoos, I also didn't know what being a Grimm was. I walked into a tattoo place once, and some wimp couldn't handle his tattoo. He woged, saw me, and then the whole place went nuts. At least half the people in there were Wesen, and of course, I just thought I was insane," Trubel explained.

Angel laughed and the two Grimms spent the rest of the night sharing funny stories.

*************

"Angel?" Trubel whispered into the darkness.

"Mmm. Yeah?" Angel mumbled, half-asleep.

"Are you in love with me?" Trubel asked him.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe," he said casually. She could feel him shrug indifferently next to her on the king-sized bed they shared. Trubel was long past wanting to complain when the hotel screwed up their room and only gave them one bed.

"Let's not get too crazy," Trubel joked.

"Why, you don't love me?" Angel asked her.

Trubel shrugged just as Angel had. "Possibly," she said, sounding just as indifferent as Angel.

"Glad we're on the same page," Angel said jokingly. "Goodnight, acquaintance," he added before rolling over in the bed they shared to face away from her.

*************

"Oh, shoot," Angel said, yelling at the road as he drove.

Trubel was sitting in the passenger's seat. "What?" she asked with concern.

"I forgot to ask Meisner for some cash," Angel said. "I think we're running low."

Considering the two were on their way to dinner, the lack of funds could be an issue. Especially since they were driving multiple hours away to go to a particular restaurant. Angel, of course, wanted to treat the situation almost like a date, after all, they were only eating out for an assignment, and their cover was that they were supposed to be a couple...

Supposed to be a couple, Trubel wondered to herself. She was curious about how different they were from what could actually be called a 'couple.' Not very different, she thought.

"Do you want me to check?" Trubel offered Angel, returning her thoughts to the problem at hand.

"If you don't mind," Angel told her. "My wallet's in the center console."

Trubel opened the center console and dug around until she found Angel's wallet. She opened it up and immediately had an unpleasant look on her face.

"What, are we out of cash?" Angel asked with disappointment. Now, what were they going to do?

Trubel glared at Angel and plucked something from his wallet, holding it out so Angel could see.

It was an image of a beautiful, blonde woman who looked a few years younger than Angel. Trubel wanted to write it off as some cousin or something, but the woman bore no family resemblance.

"Who is this?" Trubel asked grumpily... jealously.

Angel grinned widely. "Oh, you found my dime!" he said. "I don't think the restaurant will accept that form of payment, though."

"Your dime?" Trubel asked bitterly. She was going to rip Angel's head off.

"Yeah, my dime, my ten on the beauty scale, my goddess," Angel explained. His description was only making Trubel more upset.

"I can't believe you," Trubel said, but what she meant to say was, "I can't believe I trusted you."

Angel laughed. "I never took you for the jealous type."

Trubel shook her head angrily and balled her hands into fists. "I'm not jealous, I'm pissed off!" she yelled at him. "You told me that you cared about me, and now you're carrying around some girl's picture in your wallet!" Trubel turned away from Angel with disgust and looked out her window. "God, I can't believe I was so stupid."

Angel interrupted her, suddenly sounding tense. All hints of humor in his voice were gone when he said, "It's time to be honest about that picture."

"I've had about enough of your 'honesty,'" Trubel grumbled.

"Trubel, you don't need to get so worked up over a dead woman," Angel told her bluntly.

Trubel's eyes widened and she spun around to look at Angel's face. Angel was smiling gently, and from Trubel's assessment, his eyes looked... sad.

Angel took a deep breath and turned on the blinker of the car.

"This is a pulling-over kind of conversation," Angel said quietly. Just as he had said, he drove the car onto the road's shoulder and turned off the engine.

It was quiet for a moment. The sun had already set, so the two sat in darkness, unable to see each other because the car's lights had switched off.

Trubel heard Angel take a deep breath.

"Angel," Trubel said, sounding more gentle than he'd ever heard her sound. "You don't have to tell me."

"I'd like you to know," Angel replied. His voice sounded thoughtful. "Because I really do care about you, and what happened with that girl is important to me. I want you to know who I am," Angel rephrased. "And this is a part of that."

Trubel stayed quiet, waiting for Angel to be comfortable enough to begin the story.

"We met at University," Angel said. "Freshman year, we were inseparable, but just friends... By junior year, though, I had somehow convinced that divine, gorgeous, brilliant, loving woman that I was worth her attention..." Angel trailed off and took another deep breath before continuing. "Her name was Rosa," he said. Trubel could feel how much he loved her by the way his voice lingered on every syllable of her name. "And I-" Angel stopped talking abruptly. He cleared his throat, and Trubel had a feeling that she knew why he didn't continue. He couldn't.

"People weren't happy with our relationship," Angel explained, sounding frustrated. "It wasn't anyone's business, but of course people constantly told Rosa to end it with me."

"Why?" Trubel asked.

"Because of what I was... and what she was," Angel answered coldly. "I was a Grimm and Rosa was an Eisbiber."

"An Eisbiber?" Trubel repeated with surprise. She pictured Bud and, for many reasons, wasn't able to imagine Angel dating someone like that.

"Dear girl," Angel digressed, turning toward Trubel. "I love you, but if you have a negative opinion about me dating an Eisbiber, I suggest that you keep it to yourself," he threatened, sounding dangerous.

"I was just going to say that I bet she was... enthusiastic," Trubel said, looking for the right word.

Angel chuckled quietly. "My God, she was the brightest ray of sunshine anyone had ever met. Everyone loved her... that is, until we got serious.

"It wasn't long until the death threats started. People only threatened her of course, and anonymously, too, considering the consequences they would have faced if I had been able to track all of her antagonists down.

"But Rosa only ever saw the good in people, and she kept telling me, you know, that it was all fine. That it was all talk. But after a while... I could see she was getting scared. I was scared. And then, one night, we were supposed to study for an exam together, but she was invited to go out by some of her friends. They weren't fans of me, but I could see that Rosa wanted to go, so I let her while I stayed behind and studied...

"But she didn't come back that night, and she hadn't been staying with her friends, according to them... and when she missed the exam, I knew. I knew something was wrong... Some hikers found her body later that day, and after a while, I realized that her trip out was really just her friends luring her into the woods to kill her."

Angel shook his head and groaned, "Because of me." He leaned forward and rested his head on the steering wheel of the car.

"Angel, it wasn't your fault," Trubel told him quickly.

"I was supposed to be with her that night," Angel said, his voice cracking. It was clear he was fighting tears, but he kept talking. "And to think about how scared she was, and how I wasn't there..."

Angel sniffled, and Trubel put her hand on his shoulder.

Angel sniffled again as he pulled himself away from the steering wheel to sit up straight again. "I know I act like life is just some big joke, like every moment is a punchline, but sometimes that's the only way that I can...keep. Going...

"Rosa was the first person to tell me I was funny," Angel said, laughing quietly at the memory. "She loved me that way, and for a long time, that was the only thing keeping me from becoming the bitter murderer that everyone else thought I was."

Angel's tone darkened when he added, "Of course, I did have a small lapse in character." He scoffed to himself. "Rosa's 'friends' eventually got what they deserved. I picked them off, one by one, saving the Blutbad who sunk his teeth into Rosa's throat for last so he would know that death was going to come to him. Very. Painfully."

It was too dark for Angel to see, but Trubel was grinning widely at the thought of Rosa's murderers being killed off by Angel.

"I didn't really care that I would be suspect number one when people started finding their bodies in the same woods where those monsters left Rosa. And if I cared more, I wouldn't have been caught," Angel confessed. "But at the time, the only thing I cared about was dead."

"You got busted for murder?" Trubel asked him incredulously.

"I did," Angel said darkly.

"Do you want to tell me why you aren't in prison for killing however many-"

"Seven," Angel informed her. "I killed seven people in a week."

"Okay... so you got off because...?" Trubel prodded.

Angel surprised Trubel with his easy laughter. "Because there was an organization looking for efficient killers. So, I not only got off, but I also got a job with Hadrian's Wall."

"And now we're here," Trubel summed up.

"And now we're here," Angel agreed. It was painfully quiet before Angel said, "Let's go to the restaurant." He turned the car on and pulled back onto the road. He was speeding, as always, and Trubel looked at his face which showed no sign of the conversation that had passed. The rest of the short drive to the restaurant passed in complete silence. It was only until Angel parked out in front of the building that Trubel spoke.

"I'm sorry," she said, handing Angel his wallet and Rosa's picture.

Angel took both. He held the picture gently and a small smile emerged as he looked at the girl in the photo. He kissed the picture and slid it into the clear slot in his wallet so that he would see the picture every time he opened it.

"I'm not sorry that I was lucky enough to be loved by her," Angel said. "But I'm sorry that she didn't have a better choice of men. It would have saved her life."

"I think her choice of men was too good, actually," Trubel said casually. "She couldn't pick someone else if she wanted to."

Angel looked at Trubel with a curious expression. "And what about your choice of men? Would it be the same as Rosa's?" Angel was asking Trubel if she loved him. They had danced around the topic for so long, and now he wanted to know.

"Yes, even if it killed me," Trubel confessed. Angel was important to her. She always knew that, but it was nice to finally say it out loud even though it sounded cheesy.

"A romantic?" Angel asked jokingly, looking at Trubel with surprise. "I didn't see that coming!" Angel laughed before smiling blissfully, "I would die for you, too, you know that?"

"Okay, cheeseball," Trubel said. "That's enough. We have an assignment to do."

"Yes, we do," Angel admitted casually. He walked around the car and opened to door for Trubel before walking with her up the stairs to the restaurant.

*************

"He sounds like quite a guy," Damien admitted. "I don't think I could compete with that."

Trubel smiled. Damien was right when he had guessed that talking about Angel would make her feel better. "He is quite a guy."

"You mean was?" Damien clarified with confusion.

Trubel smiled, sadly this time, and shook her head. "No, is. He is the way I remember him. He's happy and funny and likes music and the color red... wherever he is now."

Damien smiled blissfully. "You really loved him, didn't you?"

Trubel nodded. "I do love him. I wouldn't have gotten my ass beat by Miles if I didn't. I mean, I would have kept my cool if Miles hadn't brought up Angel," Trubel explained.

"I don't think Angel would want you to get hurt because of him," Damien pointed out.

Trubel nodded, realizing Damien was right. "I know," she confessed. "It's just hard. I miss him a lot." Trubel smiled at Damien. "I'm really counting on there being an afterlife," Trubel told him. "Just so I can see Angel again. Even if it's just for a second as I see him through the pearly gates right before I get sent to hell."

"You aren't going to hell," Damien denied.

Trubel scoffed humorlessly. "Yeah, sure. Grimms are saints. That's why we're all being condemned to death by your friends."

"I'm not sure that people like Griese are the best judges of character," Damien disagreed. If Damien didn't agree with Griese, why did he work there?!

Trubel picked her pillow up off of her mattress and shoved her face into it before groaning. Afterward, she lifted her head and said, "You make me so confused, I just want to scream. You know that?" she growled at him unhappily.

Damien laughed at her. "I know, but it has to be that way." Damien climbed off of Trubel's mattress and stood, looking at her. "Anyway, I have to go. You can yell at me tomorrow when I come back."

Trubel grinned. "Great."

Damien smiled and walked out of the room, leaving Trubel alone in her room again. She buried her head in her pillow with frustration again, feeling stupid because she fell for Damien's 'good guy' act again. He had played her, and did it well.

But maybe he wasn't playing her. Maybe he was good. Maybe he cared about her. Did he love her? Maybe he hated Grimms before, but as time went on, he realized he was wrong. Maybe...

No, Trubel thought to herself. Damien couldn't care about her. It didn't matter anyway. As she told a seemingly jealous and longing Damien stories, she still loved Angel... even if he was dead.

Poor Damien, Trubel thought to herself sarcastically. He was fighting a losing battle if he did decide to care about her.

But he probably didn't.

Trubel thought about how she'd have to keep her guard up better when Damien stopped by the next day.

*************

Hank and Wu stepped out of the Charger in the parking lot and made their way up the stairs to the bullpen of the precinct. Hank walked over to his desk and Wu walked over to his, both of them pulling out their own set of car keys from their drawers. As Hank closed his drawer, he noticed a file sitting on his desk.

"Hey, Wu!" Hank yelled. "Forensics finished up with Miles's car."

Wu walked over to Hank and looked over the file with him.

"DNA and prints found at the scene belonged to Trubel and Miles, and no one else," Hank announced.

"Which means whoever took Trubel didn't touch the car or anything in it... which means we've got nothing," Wu summed up.

Hank sighed with frustration and threw the file back on his desk. "We'll tell Miles he can have his car and possessions back tomorrow," Hank said grumpily.

Wu put his hand on Hank's shoulder. "We'll keep looking," Wu said, trying to encourage Hank even though he wasn't much more optimistic about finding Nick and Trubel.

"Let's go home," Hank said.

The two friends walked to their own cars and drove to their houses, hoping it was the last night that they'd be looking for Nick and Trubel.