My first New Girl FanFiction piece. Because we all wanted another Nick and Jess scene at the end of "Sam, Again." Here's how I thought it could go...

These characters do not belong to me. They belong to Liz Meriwether and the other brilliant minds at New Girl.


As soon as Genevieve left the apartment, Jess and Nick remained seated on the floor, taking a silent moment to reflect on the craziness that had just taken place. Nick had gotten punched in the throat…again. Genevieve broke up with Sam right in front of them, and Jess had just accepted her dream job offer. All this had occurred just in the last hour, and Jess needed a moment to let it all sink in.

"Did all that just happen, or is this flu causing me to hallucinate?" asked Nick, who was still sitting beside her, securely wrapped up in her quilt.

"I'm pretty sure it really did happen, unless I'm sick too and we had the exact same hallucination," Jess replied.

"If you get sick too, Schmidt is going to straight up murder all of us and find new roommates who never get sick."

Jess laughed. "That is exactly what he would do."

The two sat in comfortable silence again, unless Jess remembered what she had promised Nick earlier if he talked to the chair.

"Well," Jess said as she got to her feet, "It's soup time. I would do homemade but I don't think we have enough of the ingredients I need. I think we have canned chicken noodle. You like that, right?"

"Jess, you don't really have to do that, it's fine."

"No, I want to. You got me a job! My dream job! I should be kissing you!"

The words left her mouth before she even registered the significance of them. Why did I say that?! She wondered silently. I guess all that talk about our first kiss is still on my mind.

Fortunately for Jess, Nick chuckled and replied with, "That's exactly how we got into this mess in the first place, young lady! "

"Oh yeah, good point." She attempted to casually laugh as she started pulling out the familiar red can and a pot from the cupboard. Despite feeling a little awkward by even bringing it up, Jess was reminded of a comment Nick had made earlier, when he was talking to Sam and Genevieve about their past dating relationship. Should she dare ask Nick what he meant?

As she poured the soup into the pot and set the oven timer, she decided to go for it. Besides, maybe his fever was so high that he wouldn't even remember that she had asked. Why not go for it? Yeah, that seems logical.

"Hey, Nick?" She started cautiously.

"What's up, Jess." he responded, still sitting in the exact same spot in the other room.

"If you don't want to answer this, that's totally fine. Not a big deal. I don't even need to ask it. I'm super breezy."

"Yeah, that's you, Jess. Super breezy." He said, and she knew that he was rolling his eyes, even though she couldn't see them.

"But seriously though, you don't have to answer."

"Hang on," he said, before he got to his feet and grabbed a seat close to her at the counter. "Alright, Jess, now you got me curious. What is it?"

She turned around to look at him, but decided against looking directly in his eyes when she asked her question. "Before, when you were talking with Sam and Genevieve…how did you know I wanted you to kiss me that night? I never told you that."

Once the words left her mouth, she mustered up the nerve to look at him again in order to see his reaction. When she looked, she noticed that he had an ever-so-slight turtle face, the very one that she secretly liked after all these years.

"But you did, right? I mean, you didn't correct me when I said it."

"But how did you know?" Jess tried to keep her face impartial.

The turtle face was now replaced by a satisfied grin as he looked down at the counter. "Yeah, that's right. I knew you wanted me to."

"Nick!" Despite her best efforts, Jess also broke out into a smile. "Fine, I did want you to. Now please, answer the question!"

He remained quiet for a moment, but Jess could tell by his expression that he truly was deep in thought. She blushed at the thought that Nick was probably also replaying the night of their passionate first kiss in his mind.

"I didn't really know for sure at the time. I didn't plan to kiss you. You know me. I never do things if I don't know exactly what's going to happen afterwards. But they had locked us up, and everyone was screaming at us to kiss. And then I majorly screwed that up. And then everyone thought I was jumping off the building. And then Sam took you away. But then later, despite the stupidity of that beautiful, beautiful trench coat –"

He laughed at that, and Jess quickly joined in.

"And our insane neighbor with the dog with way too many names, I remember thinking that you called for me when you heard the scratching at the door. Not Schmidt, not Winston, not even your boyfriend Sam, but me. And earlier that night when you first heard the scratching at the door, you called me."

He looked up at her.

"It felt really good knowing that you needed me. That you…knew that I would protect you. So that night, I kissed you. And when I felt you kissing me back, Jess…" With that, he trailed off and broke the eye contact, seeming to be self-conscious.

She was quiet for a moment, and then, "It was the best kiss of my life, Nick."

With that, he found the courage to meet her beautiful blue eyes once again. "Mine too."

They continued to gaze into each other's eyes for a moment, and Jess was taken aback by the deep tenderness in his eyes that she had not seen in a long time. Way too long. It was only at that moment that she realized how profoundly she had missed seeing this side of him. She had needed him. She had known that he would protect her. If she was being honest, both of those things were still true. She needed him.

Riiiiiiiiiiiing!

They both jumped as the oven timer loudly interrupted their thoughts, as Jess quickly spun around to turn it off. Feeling flustered, Jess grabbed a bowl and hastily poured the soup, managing to spill several drops on the counter.

"Whelp, here you go! You need crackers, don't you? I don't think we have any." Jess proceeded to quickly open the cabinets and rapidly dug around each one without finding what she was looking for.

"Jess, stop, I don't need stupid crackers."

"Of course you do, Nick! What's chicken noodle soup without crackers? Ugh, we don't have any! I better go grab some from the store. I'm going to get you guys some more flu medicine too. And I think we're out of toothpaste! And toilet paper!" She hurriedly grabbed her purse and headed toward the door.

"Jess! "

She didn't stop.

"Jessica! Hold on a second!" Nick attempted to get off his seat, but was having some difficulty as he was still tightly wrapped in Jess' quilt.

Without looking back, Jess was out the door.

What the heck was that? Nick stared at the door that she had just walked out of, still reeling from the vulnerable moment that they had just shared.

After shutting the door, Jess turned around in the hallway, leaned her head against the door, and closed her eyes. What the heck was that?


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