He knocked twice, softly, before barely cracking open her door. "Jess?"

There was no reply, and he peeked in to see her laying on her bed, cradling a plush parrot like it was a teddy bear.

"Hey Jess, listen, it totally wasn't like that. The boys were just joking around about the thing with Remy. I mean, first Schmidt was accusing me of wearing purple shoes, and then Winston was all, 'Well, he does sleep with dudes', and then..."

Wait, how the hell HAD that whole conversation come about?! Suddenly it didn't seem to make much sense even to him. But it didn't matter, because Jess was taking a deep breath and limply waving him silent.

"Don't worry about it Nick. I just had a really bad day, and it hit me wrong. That's all."

Sometimes her mercurial mood swings could be the most annoying thing in the world. But sometimes they soothed like a balm.

He lightly lowered himself down next to her, and asked softly, "Why have you had a bad day?"

She took another deep breath, and let it out in a resigned sigh. "I ran into some old friends today. You know...the kind of friends you have when you're a couple and you think that they really like you but then when you're not a couple anymore you suddenly never hear from them again and you realize they never were your friends at all really?"

Nick did know, and his lips thinned in sympathy. Meanwhile, Winston and Schmidt had crept in at some point during that run-on sentence, and the four of them were now lounging in, on, and around her bed, like a pile of puppies.

"So. Anyway. I just ran into them randomly today, and we were making polite conversation, and then suddenly they started laughing about the day that Spencer and I broke up. I guess...apparently...Spencer TELLS people about it. About me being...you know...in the middle of the world's most awkward striptease, and then..." She trailed off, and weakly flopped a hand against the red and yellow parrot. "He's been laughing about it. Like it's just a joke to him. The horriblest most humiliating moment of my life to date is just a joke to him..."

Her eyes were brimming with tears, and a searing anger suddenly swelled up in Nick, in a protective surge. "He still live at the same place, Jess? God help him if he still lives at the same place, because I'm going over there and..."

But Schmidt held up a placating hand and interrupted his temper fit to more calmly and practically point out, "Look, okay, Jess, because it can't be said enough: Spencer is an idiot."

And Winston chimed in with, "And if that's the kind of friends they were, you don't need them anyway."

"Oh, I know guys, " she said, blinking the tears back into submission. "That's not it, at all. Really. I'm over Spencer, and I'm over that whole period in my life." She paused for a few seconds, while Nick found that breathing deeply through his nose helped that hot swell of anger in his chest start to subside a bit, even though his nostrils flared with the effort. And then Jess continued thoughtfully, "It's just that...I'm just tired of making a fool out of myself, you know? Of just being a joke to everyone." She rolled her eyes at herself as she exampled ruefully, "I'm tired of being the girl who 'rescues' a cat from her neighbors, takes it to the vet because she thinks it's dying of mange, and finds out it's an expensive hairless breed. Of being the girl who couldn't remember the name of a sitting vice-president of the United States of America until she was 25 years old. The girl who gives her boyfriend a stuffed toy for Christmas, right after he gives her a trip to freaking Vienna." She stopped and sighed sadly, "And I know I made a huge idiot out of myself with that whole thing with Remy, too. How can I keep being so stupid all the time?!"

"Jess," Nick found himself, suddenly, fiercely, wanting to take back everything he'd previously said on the subject, in attempt to comfort her, "Just because it's not always...realistic...to believe that everyone around you is good...it doesn't mean that that trait makes you look stupid. It just makes you...better than the rest of us."

"Yeah," Winston backed him up, and the very real admiration he often seemed to have for Jess rang true in his voice, "Seriously, you have the best heart of anyone I know, Jess." He smiled at her fondly. "Sometimes a little misguided...sometimes a little loud in the morning...but you're always the best person in any room you're in."

Jess smiled back at him, blinking away happy tears now, and Nick felt the little twinge of what he always refused to admit was jealousy that he felt every time he witnessed one of those quiet little moments of connection between those two. "Isn't that exactly what I just said?" he mumbled grumpily.

But Schmidt was now offering with an intense sincerity, "Besides Jess, in that deal with Remy, YOU were not the one who came out looking like fool!"

She raised a questioning eyebrow, and Schmidt continued earnestly, "Yeah, everyone knows the pathetic loser in that situation was Nick."

Her irresistible burst of laughter was such a welcome sound that Nick gladly rode the wave of the suddenly lighter mood, "HEY, if you'll all remember, I was the one ultimately proven right that night!"

"But Nick," Winston pointed out impishly, "She wouldn't have given up if you hadn't tried to kiss her!"

Jess just grinned, as Schmidt continued with mock-seriousness, "The girl was totally ready to go through with sex with Remy, but the very prospect of kissing you made her fold like a house of cards."

"Okay, haha, I get it. This is something you guys think is funny. This is something you discuss behind my back. Ok. Nice." Nick was doing his best to act mad, but the sound of Jess's helpless giggling made him have to hide a smile as headed towards her door.

Schmidt and Winston kept the schtick coming as they trailed after him, "Aw Nick...don't feel so bad...you might have struck out with the girl, but word on the street is that Remy's door is open for you any time..."

"I heard he carved your initials onto his broom handle..."

"I heard it was the soft white flesh of his belly, but potato/po-TAH-to..."

"Guys?!" Jess's voice interrupted their banter, and although laughter still glimmered at the corners of her lips, her eyes were also glistening with happy tears. "Seeing those people today really made me realize how lucky I am now. I mean...maybe I didn't even know what friends were before. Because other than Cece, I've never had friends like you guys before...you know...REAL friends..."

She was stumbling with uncharacteristic verbal ineptness, and there seemed to be more that she wanted to say, but her watery smile wouldn't allow it. But it didn't matter, because they were all ducking their heads, mumbling incoherently, and shuffling out her door, anyway.

And as they each headed down the hall, in their different directions, only Schmidt's, "But don't think we won't be revisiting the Mystery of the Mutilated Moccasins!" broke the silence of their individual secret smiles.