badly_knitted (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
badly_knitted) wrote2025-04-03 05:41 pm
badly_knitted) wrote2025-04-03 05:41 pm
Entry tags:
Grimm Ficlet: Used To Be Simpler
Title: Used To Be Simpler
Fandom: Grimm
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Hank Griffin, Nick Burkhardt, Monroe.
Rating: PG
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandomweekly Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: His two closest friends might be feeling nostalgic in their own ways, but Nick is very much living in the present, and keeping his mind on the task at hand. Mostly.
Word Count: 768
Written For: Prompt 131 – Nostalgia at
fandomweekly.Disclaimer: I don’t own Grimm, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
With a heartfelt groan Hank sat up straighter in his chair and rubbed at tired eyes before stretching the kinks out of his back, wincing as he felt vertebrae pop.
Across the table, Nick glanced up from the heavy old book he was poring over and frowned, concerned.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, don’t mind me; I’m fine, it’s just… Sometimes I kinda wish I could turn back the clock, have everything be the way it used to be, y’know? Before I found out about all this.” He waved one hand vaguely to encompass the clutter of bizarre objects, weaponry, books, and bottles that filled the trailer. “Back when we were just two cops, keepin’ the streets safer by taking down the bad guys.”
“We’re still two cops keeping the streets safer by taking down the bad guys,” Nick reminded his partner. “That hasn’t changed.”
“I know, but these days most of ‘em aren’t just your run of the mill human criminals we used to deal with. They’re more…” Hank’s face screwed up as he tried to find the right words. “I don’t know, Human Plus, maybe.” He leaned one elbow on the table, resting his chin on his fist. “How come we’re the ones always get stuck with the really out there cases?”
“Because we’re better equipped to handle them than most cops?” Nick suggested, smiling faintly.
Hank sighed. “I guess. Still, what I wouldn’t give sometimes for a nice, straightforward robbery, or a drunk and disorderly.”
“We work homicide; we don’t get robbery cases unless there’s a body involved.”
“Don’t remind me. I’m just sayin’, my life used to be so much simpler when I didn’t know about all the Grimm and Wesen stuff, and Monroe was just your weird new friend.”
“Hey!” Monroe turned from rummaging through the bookshelves to scowl at the back of Hank’s head. “I resent that! I’m not weird.”
“Sorry, poor choice of words. How about… eccentric?”
Monroe considered that. “Okay, that’s… better. Eccentric I can live with.”
“Because it’s what you are. You gotta be, ‘cause I’ve been to your place. Never seen so many old clocks and watches. Hardly anyone uses that stuff anymore.”
“Don’t be dissing my work, man! A quality timepiece is… is… Timeless! The mass-produced battery-operated gadgets everybody uses these days, they have no soul, no heart! The ones I work on have history. They’ve lived, and each one has its own unique story to tell. They’re works of art, masterpieces, genuine antiques, and some of them are priceless!”
“Most of them would cost more than lowly cops like you and me make in a year.” Nick grinned wryly across at Hank. “Monroe’s told me about some of them and I gotta admit, they’re pretty impressive. Totally impractical in our line of work, but they definitely make a statement.”
“See? Some people have taste.” Monroe found the volume he’d been searching for and joined the other two at the table, slapping the book down on its surface and flipping it open.
“I have taste!” Hank objected. “I also have a cop’s salary, and I need a watch that tells the time but won’t cost the earth to repair or replace if it gets damaged, which is more likely these days than it used to be. Before all this, I’d only had to replace my watch twice in all the years I’ve been a cop, but in the last eight months I’ve gone through three. Can you honestly blame me for buying cheap?”
Monroe shrugged. “Guess not, but for efficiency you can’t beat a mechanical watch. Batteries can short out or fail, get disrupted by electrical fields. Long as you keep a mechanical watch or clock wound, it won’t let you down.”
“As interesting as it is listening to you wax lyrical about clocks, we have a Wesen to identify, preferably before anyone else gets hurt,” Nick reminded his friends.
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Monroe raised his hands in surrender. “Less nostalgic yearning and more research. I can do that.” He flipped a few more pages. “And I think I’ve got what we’re looking for!”
Hank peered across and pulled a face. “Ouch, nasty!”
“You don’t know the half of it. Listen to this…”
As the Blutbad started to explain about the Wesen behind their current problems, Nick smiled to himself. Life may have been more straightforward back before he learned he was a Grimm, with the bad guys more readily identified and his role in dealing with them easier to define, but however dangerous it might be, the world he lived in had never been more fascinating.
The End
Across the table, Nick glanced up from the heavy old book he was poring over and frowned, concerned.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, don’t mind me; I’m fine, it’s just… Sometimes I kinda wish I could turn back the clock, have everything be the way it used to be, y’know? Before I found out about all this.” He waved one hand vaguely to encompass the clutter of bizarre objects, weaponry, books, and bottles that filled the trailer. “Back when we were just two cops, keepin’ the streets safer by taking down the bad guys.”
“We’re still two cops keeping the streets safer by taking down the bad guys,” Nick reminded his partner. “That hasn’t changed.”
“I know, but these days most of ‘em aren’t just your run of the mill human criminals we used to deal with. They’re more…” Hank’s face screwed up as he tried to find the right words. “I don’t know, Human Plus, maybe.” He leaned one elbow on the table, resting his chin on his fist. “How come we’re the ones always get stuck with the really out there cases?”
“Because we’re better equipped to handle them than most cops?” Nick suggested, smiling faintly.
Hank sighed. “I guess. Still, what I wouldn’t give sometimes for a nice, straightforward robbery, or a drunk and disorderly.”
“We work homicide; we don’t get robbery cases unless there’s a body involved.”
“Don’t remind me. I’m just sayin’, my life used to be so much simpler when I didn’t know about all the Grimm and Wesen stuff, and Monroe was just your weird new friend.”
“Hey!” Monroe turned from rummaging through the bookshelves to scowl at the back of Hank’s head. “I resent that! I’m not weird.”
“Sorry, poor choice of words. How about… eccentric?”
Monroe considered that. “Okay, that’s… better. Eccentric I can live with.”
“Because it’s what you are. You gotta be, ‘cause I’ve been to your place. Never seen so many old clocks and watches. Hardly anyone uses that stuff anymore.”
“Don’t be dissing my work, man! A quality timepiece is… is… Timeless! The mass-produced battery-operated gadgets everybody uses these days, they have no soul, no heart! The ones I work on have history. They’ve lived, and each one has its own unique story to tell. They’re works of art, masterpieces, genuine antiques, and some of them are priceless!”
“Most of them would cost more than lowly cops like you and me make in a year.” Nick grinned wryly across at Hank. “Monroe’s told me about some of them and I gotta admit, they’re pretty impressive. Totally impractical in our line of work, but they definitely make a statement.”
“See? Some people have taste.” Monroe found the volume he’d been searching for and joined the other two at the table, slapping the book down on its surface and flipping it open.
“I have taste!” Hank objected. “I also have a cop’s salary, and I need a watch that tells the time but won’t cost the earth to repair or replace if it gets damaged, which is more likely these days than it used to be. Before all this, I’d only had to replace my watch twice in all the years I’ve been a cop, but in the last eight months I’ve gone through three. Can you honestly blame me for buying cheap?”
Monroe shrugged. “Guess not, but for efficiency you can’t beat a mechanical watch. Batteries can short out or fail, get disrupted by electrical fields. Long as you keep a mechanical watch or clock wound, it won’t let you down.”
“As interesting as it is listening to you wax lyrical about clocks, we have a Wesen to identify, preferably before anyone else gets hurt,” Nick reminded his friends.
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Monroe raised his hands in surrender. “Less nostalgic yearning and more research. I can do that.” He flipped a few more pages. “And I think I’ve got what we’re looking for!”
Hank peered across and pulled a face. “Ouch, nasty!”
“You don’t know the half of it. Listen to this…”
As the Blutbad started to explain about the Wesen behind their current problems, Nick smiled to himself. Life may have been more straightforward back before he learned he was a Grimm, with the bad guys more readily identified and his role in dealing with them easier to define, but however dangerous it might be, the world he lived in had never been more fascinating.
The End