Chapter Text
Nick slumped into the chair at his desk, about thirty minutes late, and wondering if he should have stayed in bed. He kept his hands clasped around his coffee like a lifeline. Although, he wasn’t sure if it was helping his headache or making it worse.
“Hey, I wasn’t sure if you’d be coming in.” Hank raised an eyebrow at him. “You feeling alright there, partner?”
“Headache.” Nick grunted. “I’m fine.”
“Looks worse than your average headache.” Hank observed, he leaned back in his chair to look Nick over.
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“Because of the headache?”
Nick nodded and regretted it immediately. The pounding in his skull doubled. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face, missing Hank’s concerned look. He did hear Hank mutter something about how Nick should have stayed home, but he chose to ignore that part.
“Alright, just warn me if you’re gonna pass out or something okay?”
Hank went back to his paperwork. Nick tried to follow suit, but when he opened his eyes he found himself squinting in the suddenly too-bright light of the bullpen. It hadn’t been so bright before, had it?
He blinked as his head throbbed and his body ached. He grabbed for his coffee with a shaky hand and forced himself to swallow a few mouthfuls despite his growing nausea. Maybe if he wasn’t any better by lunch he’d see about heading home early. For now, he got his hands to his keyboard and slowly chipped away at his paperwork. He made at least a crawling progress before his breath hitched weirdly and the resulting coughing fit got him dizzy again. It couldn’t be a flu right? There wasn’t one going around that he’d heard about at least.
This time Hank’s expression was exasperated, but Nick refused to acknowledge it. Hank opened his mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by Wu.
“Hey guys, just got a call, body in a parking garage.” He paused to take in Nick’s wheezing. “You okay Nick? You don’t look so good.”
“He says it’s just a headache.” Hank offered as he grabbed his coat.
“It is.” Nick insisted, but he made sure to stand slowly.
Wu snorted.
“Sure, just don’t get me sick.”
Nick rolled his eyes and stormed out as much as he could without making his headache worse than it already was.
“I bet he won’t make it ‘till lunch.” Wu offered.
“I can’t tell if you’re underestimating his stubbornness or whatever it is that’s currently striving to knock him on his ass.”
“Well?”
“No bet, I might be driving him home in a minute.” Hank headed for the door.
Wu shrugged.
“Keep an eye on him!”
“You know I will.” Hank tossed back at him as he pulled on his coat.
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Hank insisted on driving them both to the crime scene, and Nick gave in. It wasn’t too outside the usual after all. He spent the whole drive stubbornly enduring whatever his headache threw at him, though he eventually grabbed for his sunglasses to fend off the too-bright sunlight. Hank kept an eye on his partner the whole way, trying to determine exactly how bad Nick was actually feeling. He didn’t get much.
Forensics had only just gotten started by the time Hank and Nick arrived on the scene. Yellow crime scene tape roped off the back corner of a mostly-empty parking garage. It was largely used by employees who worked in the buildings above and around the area. Most of the actual parking spots were empty, either generally unused or asked to move for the sake of the investigation. Nick kept his eyes on Hank’s back and tried to listen as the unit summarized what they’d found so far.
“Teenage female, killed a few hours ago, as far as we can tell. It was called in by a night shift employee trying to get to their car. We haven’t checked the body for I.D. yet.”
Nick tuned some of the details out until he felt Hank nudge his shoulder.
“Do you want to do the honors?” Hank asked, grimly.
“Huh?”
“We’ve got to roll the body.”
“Oh, go ahead.” Nick blinked under his sunglasses, realizing that he should’ve taken them off by now. They were standing in a dim garage, but he didn’t reach up to remove them.
He redirected his focus to the scene before him. Hank pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket to check over the still form on the ground. The body was laying facedown on the concrete, wearing old jeans and a t-shirt. Her jacket lay, torn, next to her, and Nick spotted claw-like marks along the sleeve. The rest of her clothes looked intact, but soaked through with splotches of blood.
Hank carefully rolled the body over and Nick winced. Half-congealed blood oozed from a gaping wound at the victim’s throat. Hank cursed quietly, then checked the pockets to find a wallet.
“Got an I.D?” Nick asked as he took in the details. He was managing a bit more focus with a case right in front of him.
“Driver’s license.” Hank reported. “Looks like Alexis Wilmot, sixteen…” He shook his head. “She just got this license earlier this year.”
“We’ll figure out who did this.” Nick ignored the pain and crouched down across from Hank.
“I could be a what.” The uni suggested as he jotted down the name in his notepad. “That almost looks like an animal attack.”
He walked off to get the forensics team organized. Hank looked up at Nick.
“Or a Wessen attack.” He murmured.
“Could be.” Nick agreed. “Could be Blutbaden, they usually go for the throat.”
“Maybe Monroe could track it?”
“Yeah, let’s finish up here. I can ask him later.”
Nick pulled himself upright with a suppressed groan, but got right to work. He could focus on the work over the pain. So, he wandered the parking garage to search for any signs that the killer had left behind, or any signs that someone else had been involved. He’d noticed some scratches and bruises on the victim’s arms, defensive wounds most likely. In other words, she’d put up a fight. Nick made a mental note to make sure that forensics checked under her nails in case she’d managed to scratch her attacker. Maybe her effort would get them caught at the very least.
He checked the position of the body. Was she headed for a parking spot? The exit? The building itself? He turned his head to address a uni searching nearby.
“Are any of these cars unclaimed?”
“All of them are registered to employees in the building, and none of them have gone missing as far as we can tell, but we’ll keep checking.”
Nick looked past the cars and spotted a smudge of something dark on the wall. He stepped closer. It was blood, dried blood headed towards the body. So had it been hers or someone else’s?
He got between the parked cars to check the rest of the wall, taking his sunglasses off as he went. There were droplets on the floor. Nick straightened up to signal the forensics team, but a flash of light, reflected from a car driving by, cut across his face for a second. He hissed in pain and fell back, he caught himself on the car next to him. Dizziness threatened to knock him to the ground. It took a minute for his vision to get back to normal.
Hank's voice sounded closer than Nick expected.
“Nick? You got something?”
“Um, yeah, blood.” Nick blinked the last few spots from his eyes and straightened.
Hank joined him, then called over forensics after taking a look himself.
“I hope that that gives us something.” Hank said as the two of them got out of the way.
“No luck?” Nick guessed.
“Not much, I-”
Footsteps, the other investigators, talking, plastic bags opening and zipping closed, somewhere water dripped and the sound blended with everything else. Nick felt lost standing still, amongst all of the noise. He latched on to Hank’s familiar rumble and tried to pull himself back into focus.
“...I’d say next steps are to look for witnesses until the M.E. and forensics get back to us, then- Nick?”
“Yeah.” Nick tried to pay a convincing amount of attention. “Sounds good.”
“Right.” Hank eyed him, but headed for the other side of the parking garage. “I’ll check this corner, you check that one and we’ll get out of here.”
Nick just nodded and walked to the area opposite of where he’d been searching before. The murmuring of the other investigators stabbed at his aching head, such soft sounds having surprisingly sharp edges. He winced and tried to maintain his focus. He looked for scraps of something, more blood maybe, but the noise- He closed his eyes and shook his head.
Then the sound was gone.
His eyes snapped open and he whipped around. They were still there, talking and processing the scene. But the sound had vanished. NIck snapped his fingers next to his ear. Nothing. He watched his own fingers snap, just to make sure that it was actually happening, and found the silence stifling. Out of the corner of his eye he saw what almost looked like a glow around his hand, but when he turned to check, it was gone.
Just as suddenly as it had left, sound came rushing back to him. The pain of his headache returned like a blossom of heat across his temples. Nick sighed, and winced. His own voice sounded loud. He trudged towards the exit. Maybe some fresh air would help? Hank spotted him on the way out and followed.
“Alright, come on.” Hank put a hand on Nick’s arm to guide him towards the car.
“What?” Nick blinked at him. “I just need some air.”
“You’re completely out of it man, I’m driving you home before you hurt yourself.”
“I-”
Nick stepped out from the shade of the parking garage. Light tore into his eyes for the instant before he shut them. He stumbled, but Hank’s arm was there to catch him.
This time, when he opened his eyes, Hank merely stared him down. Nick nodded.
“Okay.”
Hank wrapped an arm around his shoulder and got him to the car without another word.
Nick sunk into the passenger seat. He winced when Hank turned the car on and the music blared for a moment, but Hank noticed his discomfort and shut the music off. Nick just breathed and enjoyed his respite from the commotion of everything outside the car. He was too spacey and out of it for much conversation, so the car ride was quiet.
When they pulled into the driveway, Nick insisted on walking to the door himself. Hank rolled down his window to watch.
“Do you need me to pick anything up for you?”
“No.” Nick reached the door and fumbled with his keys. He decided that the resulting clinking was, in fact, the worst noise in existence.
“I’ll come by and check on you after work, get some rest okay?”
Nick got the door open and waved over his shoulder as he stepped inside. Once the door shut behind him, Nick just stood in the quiet of the house for a moment. The walls gave him some shelter from the noise, the light. He basked in it. Juliette was helping an overwhelmed clinic a few hours out of town, so she wouldn’t be back for a week or so. Their home wasn’t exactly bustling most days, but it was quiet now and Nick found himself being immeasurably grateful for that much. That also meant that he’d be alone for the next couple hours until Hank came by again.
Nick didn’t bother to turn on any lights. The sunlight was more than enough to see by. He trudged towards the kitchen. Maybe he should eat, get something into his stomach besides coffee. Or, maybe he should just take something for the pain. Presented with the choice, he went for the pain meds rather than the food. He wasn’t sure if he could prepare anything significant in his current state, and his stomach still twisted with hints of nausea anyway.
He took his pain relief, chugged a glass of water, and made a b-line for the couch. He sunk into the cushions and rubbed his face. The empty house didn’t seem so quiet anymore. He could hear the wind rustling the trees outside, a few creaks and groans of the home itself, and his own harsh breathing. His hands felt cold against his face.
Nick reached behind him and snagged the quilt folded over the back of the couch. It was the one from Bud's family. He bundled up in it to fend off the strange cold, and, not sure what else to do, Nick closed his eyes and let himself fall to one side. Maybe he could get some sleep. Then he’d feel better and he could get back to work. It was just a headache, after all.