The Next Morning

When Nick woke up, it was nearly 10 a.m. It was one of the best sleeps he'd had in a while. He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes, still somewhat tired from the anxiety that had been bubbling up in him last night. The drive from the beach to the hospital to collect his results were some of the tensest minutes of his life, and the only thing that had made him feel any resemblance of calm was Jess's hand resting lightly on his arm. She'd said nothing since they'd woken up on the beach, and when he'd asked her if something had happened, she'd simply given him a small, unsure smile.

"Nothing," she'd said as if she wasn't sharing some secret with him.

She'd been unusually quiet most of the morning and had dozed off in the car on their drive back home. Once they were upstairs, without saying much, everyone had headed to their own rooms (Cece had gone to Schmidt's) and just went back to sleep. As Nick lay awake, he could hear the faint chattering of people from the kitchen, and the sound of muffled sizzling. There was nothing unusual about those sounds, except that there wasn't the occasional singing from Jess that he would pretend annoyed him into waking up. He had no idea why he thought it necessary to do that, but he did it anyway.

Starting to feel a little hungry, he swung out of bed and dragged himself out of his bedroom to brush his teeth. He was greeted by Jess's door, closed all the way, which was odd, given how she rarely ever closed her door. Shaking his head, he started to walk towards the bathroom in a haze and brushed his teeth mechanically. Minutes later, he was sitting at the kitchen island as Schmidt cooked something up, while Cece was sipping on her coffee quietly. Winston, it would seem, had gone out for a run; the guy was resilient as hell.

Nick's eyes kept darting to Jess's bedroom door as he wondered where she was, and why she wasn't up yet. He really wanted to ask the question out loud, but that would be out of character for him, and he was in no mood to deal with all the questions that were to be shot his way when he himself wasn't too sure of the answers. He quietly took the mug of coffee that Schmidt had offered him, continuing to think about what he liked to call an "inexplicable situation". He knew of course, that the situation was possibly quite explicable, but he'd rather pretend it was complicated.

Ever since he'd caught Jess lurking outside Schmidt's door on Valentine's Day, strange sort of restlessness had filled him. He wasn't sure why he'd been angry and was even more confused as to what had possessed him to grab her by the waist and drag her away. Until then, Julia had occupied some corner of his mind, and for that, he'd been grateful. But after Julia had left, his mind had a lot of free space.

Now, his mind was filled with various images of Jess. Her standing against the morning light in a sun yellow dress, blending into the sunlight. The way her hand curled under neck when she fell asleep on movie nights. The amusement on her face while she graded papers and the occasional giggle accompanied by a gentle shaking of her head. The way she worried her lips when she was nervous or thoughtful. The way her dark hair caught the silver of the moonlight.

Huh, that's a new one.

He looked at Jess's door for the nth time that morning, when he caught Cece's eyes over the rim of his coffee mug that he was now sipping from. She was smirking at him knowingly, and he simply frowned at her. Not taking her eyes off Nick, Cece set her coffee mug on the table and stood up. "I'm going to go check on, Jess," she announced, while Nick looked away, slightly embarassed.

Schmidt nodded as he turned around with his own plate of food. "I hope she isn't dead or something. It's nearly 10.30 a.m. and she's not even out yet."

Cece nodded and left the kitchen, disappearing into Jess's room. As soon as Cece left, Schmidt turned around to sit across Nick. "So, Nicholas."

"What?" he asked apprehensively, taking another sip of coffee.

"You and Jessica, huh?"

"What about us? There's nothing about us? What're you talking about?" he said with false incredulity.

"Oh, Nicholas, you insult me!" said Schmidt, clearly offended. Schmidt leaned across the table with a smug expression. "I've seen the way you look at her. Don't you deny it. I've known you for almost a decade now and I know that look."

Nick grunted in annoyance; a classic response to when he had no comeback.

"Ha! You don't have a comeback, do you?" asked Schmidt smugly.

"Lay off ya ninny!" said Nick annoyedly and turned away.

Schmidt drew back and straightened in his seat. "Not denying anything, I see," he muttered to himself.

"Schmidt-" started Nick.

They were interrupted by a muffled thud and a very irritated voice. "Cezeee, no! Stobbit!"

It was Jess's voice, muffled and strained, coming from her bedroom, punctuated by grunts. Frowning, both Nick and Schmidt exchanged a look before Nick stood up and started to walk towards Jess's room. Schmidt stayed seated as he watched Nick's retreating back with a knowing smile, muttering, "...dumbest boy in school..."

Nick reached the bedroom and knocked twice in warning before opening the door. "What is-"

He stopped short when he saw Cece two feet away from the door while Jess was holding onto one of Cece's hands with both of hers, squatting on the floor and pulling back with what seemed like all her might. Neither of them had noticed Nick staring at them. Cece was looking over her shoulder at Jess and straining against her while Jess sat on the floor, almost hugging Cece's arm, eyes scrunched shut with the effort, tugging backwards.

"Cezee, he wanded do giss be," she had confided nervously when Cece had asked her why she was still in bed. "Bud I bed he doesn'd remember. I wish he would."

"Whoa! Why do you sound like that!" Cece had asked, hurrying towards her concerned.

"I'mb fine!"

"Yeah, sure you are. You're staying home today," said Cece firmly. "And you can sort out your... kissing scene as well," she had added with a laugh.

"Cezee, I'mb perfecdly fine!" Jess had said, arms crossed, muttering, "And dere's nothing to sord oud."

"Sure, there isn't nothing. You obviously wish he had kissed you!" said Cece crossing her arms.

Jess stuck her tongue out at her and looked away.

"I thought so," said Cece smirking. ?I'm going to tell the guys that you're down today," she said, starting to head towards the door.

Jess had jumped of bed caught Cece's hand, pulling at her. Cece stronger than Jess but the fact that Jess was ill wasn't quite helping her case. So Cece had effortlessly started to head towards the door when Jess grasped her arm, almost hugging it, and sat on the floor. Knees bent, she started pulling backwards, grunting, "Cezee, no! Stobbit!"

"Jess, don't be stupid! I have to tell them!" Cece was saying, as she pulled, her other hand straining towards the door.

Cece knew Jess was proud that she never fell ill, but there was no doubt that she was sick this morning. It was in all likelihood because they spent the night at the beach with hardly any warm clothing. Jess, contrary to her belief, wasn't that immune to the cold weather. Even when they were children, she'd always be the coldest and almost always be the first among their friends to go down with a cold if not kept warm. As much as Cece would've liked to stay and take care of her, she had to go to work; the guys were her next best hope. One guy in particular.

"I- I'm a deacher," Jess gasped. "I'm immbune to all ove this!"

"Jessica!" started Cece warningly.

"Cezelia!" said Jess, imitating the same tone.

Nick cleared his throat to draw their attention to him, and both their eyes darted to him, startled. Cece stopped pulling, sending Jess tumbling onto her back with the softest of grunts.

"Oh, Nick! Good, you're here!" said Cece happily, ignoring the death glare Jess was shooting her way from the floor.

"Um, what is happening?" asked Nick, looking back and forth at them, watching Jess straighten up slowly against the bed.

"Jess is sick," said Cece.

"Ambnot!" said Jess, crossing her arms defiantly, as Cece continued.

"She definitely caught a cold last night, and I suspect she's on her way to a fever as well."

Jess then looked at Nick defiantly. "Nig, I'mb nod sig!"

"It's Nick," he corrected her, with an amused smile.

"'S wad I said," she grumbled, as Nick took in her bedraggled hair and pallid face. Her eyes were sunken in, with a slightly moist look to them like she was about to cry, and looking like they were two steps away from being bloodshot. He thought he could see her shivering slightly. And there was also, of course, the most important giveaway - her cold-induced accent. Shaking his head at her grumbling, he turned to look at Cece.

"Yep, she's definitely ill, alright," he agreed.

Both of them ignored her outraged grunt, while Cece continued. "Yeah. The thing is I'm already late for work. Someone needs to take care of her."

"I'll do it," Nick offered, knowing Schmidt would immediately back out, possibly even suggest quarantine, and Winston, well... Who knew?

He, for one, wasn't about to ask anyone else. He didn't want to bother the others (which is what he told himself) and would rather take care of her by himself. The fact was that he could be a good caretaker, especially if it was someone he cared about. And he did care about Jess, obviously. She was almost the mother hen of the group, and when she was down; it made him quite uncomfortable. In a platonic way... Well, semi-platonic way, of course.

Cece looked over her shoulder at Jess and gave her a small smirk before turning back to Nick. "Great! I knew I could count on you," she said, giving Nick a pat on the shoulder.

"Y-Yeah," said Nick. "Because all of you have work to do and I only have to go in the evening. You'll be back by then and-"

"Of course, of course," she said, patting his shoulder assuringly and muttering under her breath, "That's exactly why."

Over Cece's shoulder, Nick saw Jess jump to her feet and stumble towards them angrily. "I'mb nod sig you guys! Id's nod a big deal! My immbune sysdem is perfecdly cabable of-"

"Do you even hear yourself, Jessica!" exclaimed Nick.

"Id's jusda gold! No biggie!" she said, indignantly."Now iv you'll exguse me, I have a glass to ged do."

"I doubt those kids will understand you," muttered Cece, trying to block Jess as she started to push past them to get outside.

Later, Nick would wonder what came over him as he did what did next. Sighing, he threw one arm around her waist and the other behind her knees, picking her up in one fluid motion. She squeaked in surprise and stopped flailing, stunned with disbelief. Cece gaped at them with a mixture of amusement and awe, as Jess's hands automatically went around his neck while she stared at his face.

"Yeah, you take her to bed, Miller," she murmured, probably a little too loudly because Jess's eyes grew wide in horror as she stared at Cece over Nick's shoulder.

Jess was freaking out. She was half afraid Nick would hear her heart trying to escape her chest. She knew exactly what Cece was upto, but she herself wasn't ready for this. This was one of those times where she needed to get inside her own head a little and figure things out. It'd be pretty hard to do with this sudden gentlemanly behaviour on his part and being unsually nice to her even while sober.

Nick didn't react to Cece's words though, either not having heard her, or choosing to just ignore her. He lay the dumbstruck woman onto her bed gently, saying, "You need rest, Jess."

Cece hurried over to the bed and started to tightly tuck the blanket around Jess as Jess struggled against it. Nick sat down next to Jess and put a hand on her forehead and then pressed the back of his hand against her cheek. Then he shook his head and looked at Cece. "She's got a fever alright."

"That's nod ad all sciendific!" exclaimed Jess. "Ged a thermomeder!"

"I've taken care of my little brother enough to know what a fever feels like, Jessica!" said Nick, rolling his eyes.

Jess grimaced, but said nothing. She stopped struggling as well, accepting the fact that she was well and truly beaten by the two annoying people who were now victoriously towering over her.

And then she looked at Cece, standing behind Nick with a smug face. God, she wanted to punch that smile off her bestfriend's face. She should've known it would be a mistake to tell her that Nick had wanted to kiss her last night. In fact, she should've left it at that. But no, she had to confess to Cece that she'd wanted to kiss him too. And now, she would probably be alone with Nick almost the whole day, hoping that she didn't make a fool of herself.

How was she supposed to ponder over whether or not to remind him of last night when he was actually around her all day! With that stupidly soft look in his eyes!

"Well, looks like that's settled," said Cece. "I'll leave her to you then, Nick."

"Yes, ma'am," said Nick, standing up and turning to Cece.

"I'll be back by evening," she told Nick.

Then, Cece smiled at Jess before walking to her and leaning down to plant a kiss on her forehead.

"It's for your own good, babe," she said.

"I hade you," said Jess crossly.

Laughing merrily, Cece walked out of the room, leaving the two of them in her room. Few minutes later, they were left alone in the loft. Both were oblivious to Cece reprimanding Schmidt for being worried about "germs" when there were other, more important things that he was likely unaware of that needed their attention.

"If you're referring to the stench of lust in the loft, I'm well aware, Cecelia," he muttered, as he closed the door behind him and Cece. "I live here and I do have eyes."

A/N: Next chapter - Nick taking care of Jess while she's ill, and *wink*wink*