I'm not sure where this came from tonight, but...Merry Christmas Roomfriends and Happy New Year.
It's 3:43 am when his eyes squint into the darkness towards the bedside clock in his childhood home back in Chicago. It takes him a moment to remember where he is or even when it is, and suddenly he's shivering even though he's under a mountain of blankets. He doesn't remember it being this cold here, but he's lived in LA for years now, so he shouldn't really be surprised. As he shakes the sleepiness out of his head, he realizes that the reason he's so cold is that there's no one laying beside him and he starts to panic. It's only the second night they've slept in this bed, so he starts to worry that maybe Jess had one of her strange dreams and wandered off to make a cup of tea to help lull herself back to sleep.
Sitting up in bed, his eyes finally adjust to the dim light of the streetlight shining through the window and he grabs his robe off the end of the bed. As he makes his way down the stairs, he sees that the lights on the tree have been turned on and he laughs as he runs his hand through his hair, thinking how his Ma probably turned them on before she went to bed so they would be lit tomorrow morning for Christmas. Well, this morning, now.
He's just about to turn into the kitchen when he notices an outline on the floor by the tree, and as he approaches, realizes that it bears a strange resemblance to his girlfriend. He's not sure if she's awake or asleep, so he manuevers carefully around the coffee table and sits down softly next to her on the worn blue carpet. She remains perfectly still, except for her sparkling blue eyes, which move to the side to take him into focus and a smile spreads across her face.
Her voice is this incredibly soft and sweet sound wafting across the dark room and he can't help but feel just a little bit warmer inside his robe when he hears it. "Was I too loud? Did I wake you?"
He just shakes his head and brushes one of her soft, dark curls off her forehead. "Not at all. I just woke up and you were gone." He raises his eyebrows and feigns seriousness. "This cold can be dangerous when you leave me to freeze by myself like that."
She lets out a lighthearted laugh, one that still makes his heart melt, and reaches up to brush her fingers over his cheek. "I couldn't sleep. Christmas Eve is too exciting to waste it in bed."
He just shakes his head with a smile on his face and coyly bops his index finger on her nose. "Eternally 6 years old, Jessica Day."
She just shrugs and pulls on his arm, coaxing him to lay next to her and he squints his eyes at her. "What are doing on the living room floor, anyway?"
Rolling her head, his eyes follow hers as she looks up into the tree. Her voice is quieter now, but her grip on his hand that much tighter. "Look at the lights, Nick. Aren't they amazing?"
He stares for a moment, into the thick green branches filled with twinkling white lights and bright colored ornaments above him. His breath catches in his throat and he sees Jess' eyes reflected in a shiny silver ball hanging close to their heads. All he can see is how happy she is and and think how much he loves her. There's a lump forming in his throat now and he turns his head to the side. She doesn't even notice him as he stares at her face, all lit up and glowing with the soft lights of the tree. She's so beautiful, and kind, and her feelings for him so genuine that it scares him. It scares him to think that he's screwed up so many things in his life that maybe it's only a matter of time until he screws this up too.
He had made so many plans. He had told Schmidt how he wanted it go and how excited he was for one of his plans to finally work out. Back in LA, he had made sure everything was perfect when they got back home. The champagne on the roof, the music, the anticipation as they counted down the seconds to the new year. But now, as he lays here under a Christmas tree staring at the woman he loves more than anything in this world, all he can think about was how much his heart aches at the thought of a moment without her in it.
She sighs softly then, turning her head towards him and she flashes him a smile that could be the last smile he ever sees, and it could keep him happy for the rest of his life. That's when he knows. That's when he knows that he's not going to wait until the ball is being dropped, or for them to get home, or even for the sun to come up. This is his moment. This is when the quiet house and the twinkling lights and the smile from the woman he loves is telling him to take a chance and make his move. He's waited long enough, and he wants to be happy. Whenever he thinks about the start of the rest of his life, he wants this to be it.
So when she tilts her head at him one last time and squeezes his hand, he's so sure of the words that come out of his mouth that, for once, he isn't scared that he's going to screw this up. Because this is Jess, his Jess, and he's not going to wait any longer.
He looks straight into those deep blue eyes, the ones he's gotten lost in so many times and he's so calm that it's almost as if the entire world is holding its breath. His voice doesn't even waver in the slightest when he says the words he's been thinking of for far too long.
He just says them, and his entire future seems to open up before his very eyes.
"Jessica, will you marry me?"
He watches her breath catch in her throat, and her eyes cloud over with a glassiness that seems to make her even more beautiful than before. And then he hears her. He hears her say the sweet words he's been waiting so desperately to hear, with a breathy gasp that he'll remember for the rest of his life.
"Yes."