This is a story I came up with on the spot today. It will be a multi-chapter, and don't be put off by this chapter, this is simply to explain what to expect in the coming chapters. I will say that there is an impending wedding thrown into the mix, which will be the epicentre of this story. I hope you enjoy!

I don't own New Girl or the characters.


The Letters - Chapter 1 - Prologue

*The loft lies vacant, not a single car parked outside of the crumbling ruins of a building that hasn't been attended to in three years. Corrosion eats up the sides and the windows are boarded up as a result of a health violation in the form of potential cholera pathogens in the water brought to light by the last health inspection in 2015.

4D, the door that they'd walked through so many times in so many moods. Sometimes, they were sad, others they were excited. Over that threshold marks years' worth of kisses, arguments, tears, laughs, friendships, relationships and pregnancy scares more often than not. Locked away in the abandoned air of the loft are millions of memories that can never be truly forgotten.*

~Meanwhile in Seattle~

Dear Nick,

Remember when you told me you weren't sure about the colours for the walls? Well, Ikea have a new section dedicated to guys who have no concept of home décor. They can help you with matching the walls and the furniture, although I would have said white with soft mint. It's actually not even that much of a dilemma, you just need to open up that thick skull of yours and look inside of it.

I was just clearing out some boxes from the attic and I found your Zombie novel tucked away under some old documents waiting to be shredded. You're lucky I had 'Do Not Shred!' written in thick red sharpie, because I'm running on coffee and sleepless nights right now and I think I threw the pizza carton in the sink and the plates in the trash can. I'll check later. Anyhow, I read over it and I came across the setting: Seattle! I guess it was just built into my subconscious that Seattle is where I need to be right now. Who knows, maybe they'll make an adaptation of the novel and I can play Carol. I need some way to kick-start my acting career. (I'm kidding, just in case you expect me to go along with any of your bizarre plans in the future.)

I'm sorry I haven't got much else exciting to tell you, other than I'm super excited you haven't resorted back to the modern days of texting instead of letter writing. I feel like I need to keep reminding you that there isn't actually an autocorrect option built into pens. Anyway, I hope all is well with you and Caroline. And good luck with that baby makin' process! Maybe next time we see each other you'll have a little Miller hanging off of you!

With love,

Jessica Day.

Jess sets the pen down beside the page and folds it in half, leaving it on her desk. She stands up and takes the eraser, rubbing the white board clean of facts about the Civil War and makes a note on a pink post-it to pick up the DVD documentary on it she's promised her students on the way home. After she packs up her books and the letter, she slings her laptop case around her shoulder and heads for the exit, smoothing out her skirt as she pads down the hallway, past the lockers and the offices, drawing yet another school day to a close.


When she gets into the apartment, the aroma of fresh tomatoes tantalizes her senses and she kicks her shoes off at the door, wary not to slip on the hardwood floors in her tights.

"Alan, I'm home." She chirps, turning into the kitchen. The first thing she sees amidst all of the modern oak furniture with marble countertops and colour co-ordinated dishes on the dish-rack is the her husband of three weeks, Alan, standing over the stove, engrossed in the contents of the saucepan in front of him. A faint haze of sunlight shines in through the window, casting tall shadows across the room.

"Hey babe, spaghetti good for dinner?"

"De-licious." She smiles and pecks a light kiss on her husband's cheek.

She wraps her arms around his waist and rests her head on his shoulder, taking in the fragrant scent of herbs and admiring the concentration on his face.

She and Alan met two years ago, not long after Jess had made the decision to leave the guys in Los Angeles and make the move to Seattle after being offered a job in a prestigious private school that paid generously. Of course, she'd been hesitant and apprehensive. She'd devoted four years to that loft, and now she's just supposed to up and leave?

It was Cece who'd convinced her that it would be worth it, and that it would be a great experience to make a drastic altercation to her life. Jess had given it some thought, and after a gruelling few months, tensions high in the loft at the thought of Jess leaving, lying mostly with Nick, she'd packed her bags, said her goodbyes and caught the next plane to Seattle.

However, it wasn't as easy as that. Nick and Jess had been together since Cece's almost-wedding with Shivrang, and there'd been talks of proposal in Nick's half. Jess had no idea, and by the time he'd gone to initiate Operation: Wed Jess, she'd come bounding in with the news that she'd gotten the job offer and Nick's hopes had been dashed instantaneously. He wasn't going to be the one to stand in the way of her dreams, so on that same day, they'd mutually decided it'd be best to end it now to stop them from having to suffer through the whole process of waiting for her decision to be made. Not long after, Cece announced that she and Schmidt would be leaving the United States to explore the diverse cultures of Europe for a year. Those two had ventured off on many impulsive journeys, seeing as they both have the incomes for it, but this had been by far the most extensive one.

And then, as if it wasn't already bad enough that Winston and Nick should be left alone once again, a phone call came through, the voice on the other end being that of Winston's old basketball agent offering him the chance to return to Latvia on the grounds of being treated like royalty and the chance to be a permanent team member. Of course, everyone tried to tell him that this was an exaggeration, but Winston wasn't going to turn down the chance to make some extra money and get back his old sports-man body he'd been pining over since his return to the States.

Once Nick had been left stranded in the loft on his own, the pain of seeing everyone's rooms baron without a single tub of sculpting chutney on the bathroom shelves had become too much for him and he sought refuge in the one person that no one else would ever approve of: Caroline. She'd recently been divorced from her husband of four years and was more than willing to have Nick back. They moved in together only three months after they'd been together and swore oath that this time they'd make it work and from thereon, he'd tried to forget about his old life in the loft.

As for the letters, those started after Jess called Nick to see how he was doing, and then Alan got suspicious of their frequent phone calls, not to mention to absurd bills coming through the mail every day.

"He's just an old roommate, Al, there's nothing to be worried about."

"So why are you on the phone with him for two hours every day?"

She had no explanation and promised that the calls would stop, purely out of consideration for their relationship. She'd found a more efficient way to stay in contact with him, and it also paired as a fulfilment of her childhood dream of having a pen-pal. At first, Nick wasn't up for it, but once she'd sought out his address and began practically throwing the letters at him, he'd given in and began to reply to them. He told her all about Caroline and Winston and how he thinks that this could be his calling from above. Jess repetitively tried to make herself sound disappointed, but it turns out that that's pretty difficult to do when your only resources are a pen and paper. Nick asked why she wanted to write and why they couldn't just email, but she'd made up an excuse saying that the Wi-Fi is too expensive in the apartment and she has no time to get to a computer with her hectic schedule. She never mentioned Alan.

Some would argue that this was almost like sneaky flirting, but Jess constantly reassures herself that it's just maintaining the upkeep of a valued friendship, and then she lets him know the same thing.

Hey, in case Caroline asks about the letters, or if she's reading this now (Hey Caroline!), there's no significant meaning behind them. This is just some old fashioned bonding via. Pre-technology methods! Have a great day!

Nick responds sans concern for the integrity of his and Caroline's relationships, and talks like he normally would in every sentence. He starts off with some cheesy greeting, the body normally contains random mumbo-jumbo about the things he's found out about and what he's doing writing-wise and then he asks her opinions of a few things. I.e. decorating his home. It should be worrying to Caroline, but she lets him carry on. As for Alan, he doesn't know about Nick or the letters. And Jess is beginning to feel the burn of keeping secrets from him, because if there's one thing Alan isn't, it's ignorant and/or dense. Alas, she carries on, writing in places that he's unlikely to show up at, and posts them at the same time every day after school, and she's always the first up in the morning to collect the mail. The letters are wrapped with draw string and kept in a file box in a drawer in her desk, which she makes sure to lock anytime she's not there to supervise it. Nick, on the other hand, leaves the letters from her proudly displayed on a noticeboard in his room. She's doing everything in her power to make sure Alan is fully blacked out from them, while Nick makes a point to have everyone know, almost subliminally, that he is not over Jessica Day.