Nick was so sick. He had always scoffed when people said the flu made them feel as if they had been hit by a truck, but now he took it all back. It really did feel like he was hit by some large and heavy vehicle. He was glad he kept a small garbage can close to his bed, his room may be messy, but he didn't want to get vomit all over the place.
It was a constant cycle for him. He would sleep for an hour or so, wake up moaning and groaning, his eyes barely open because any little bit of light made his brain feel like it was going to explode. He would try to hold things down but eventually lost the battle, and he would grab his trash can once more. He wished he'd had some of his mom's quilts because he was absolutely freezing and his thin blankets weren't cutting it.
At some point, Schmidt, Winston, or someone must have come in and put more blankets over him, and a cool wet rag on his head. He was grateful to have such great roommates. He opened his eyes, preparing to wince at the light, but he was surprised to see his room was rather dark. He realized he had been in bed all day. For a moment he worried he missed work but remembered he was scheduled off for two days. He really hoped that's all the time he would need to recover because he desperately needed money.
He let his eyes adjust to the dark room. He saw a glass of water on his nightstand which he greedily drank. He could feel it sloshing around in his empty stomach and he realized how hungry he was.
He tried to push himself up; his body ached all over. His arms buckled beneath his weight, so he collapsed back down on the bed. He groaned, frustrated at how helpless he felt. How could something as stupid as the flu make a man so weak? He wasn't sure what time it was, but he hoped maybe one of his roommates was awake and within earshot.
"Winston? Coach?" He croaked out. His voice was quieter than he had hoped, so he shouted their names again, this time at a volume that he was confident they could hear.
He heard some shuffling outside his door. The nob turned and his eyes went wide when he saw who it was.
Jess woke up the next morning. She had a headache from crying all night. Her sister Abby had held her all night, and though it was comforting, she ached in longing for the man sleeping downstairs.
She was angry with herself. Nick had done nothing wrong in the first place, but her insecurities and fears had caused her to run away from the only man she really wanted. And now she feared she had lost him forever.
The carefully pried herself out of Abby's arms and tip toed out the door. She hoped that after a night's sleep that Nick would have a clearer head, and maybe they could work things out. She made her way slowly down the stairs. She knew that if she woke Nick up wrong, he could be quite the bear.
Her heart sunk when she saw the folded blankets on the couch, but no Nick. Maybe he is just using the bathroom? She tried to hope. But she knew inside that he had left.
She sent a group text to the guys. Did Nick come home? She asked them.
Yes. I picked him up this morning. Schmidt was the only one to respond, so she guessed the others were either asleep or busy doing something else.
She was glad he was somewhere safe and not wandering the streets of Portland to find and kill Sam.
She went into the kitchen and pulled out her mom's kettle, filled it with water, and set it to heat up on the stove. She couldn't go back to sleep now. As she waited for the signature whistle of the kettle to blow, her mom came down the stairs, wearing a pajama set that Jess had given her for Christmas a couple years ago.
"You're up early Jujube." She sat at the counter with Jess.
"Yeah, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Nick's gone." She said as matter of fact.
"I noticed." Joan got up and put her arm around Jess.
"I don't know what happened last night, but I do know that boy loves you very much."
Jess started sobbing, surprised she still had tears from all the crying she did last night. "I think he hates me now!" She turned her head and continued to cry in her mom's shoulder.
"Shhhhh," Her mom rubbed her back like she did when Jess was a little girl, "It's okay. Nick could never hate you."
"I don't know…" Jess said, looking up at her mom, wiping at her nose and eyes. "I kissed Sam last night. I shouldn't have but I was upset and Sam was there…" she tried to justify it to herself but the truth was she did it and she couldn't take it back.
The kettle startled to whistle. Jess got up but her mom stopped her and went to take it off herself. She grabbed two mugs and some chamomile tea from the cupboard, then prepared the cups for her and Jess. She gave Jess her mug before going back around to sit by her daughter.
"Jess, I know you feel bad. You are a wonderful girl, but even you can make mistakes." She grabbed Jess's hand and gave it a squeeze. You just need to show Nick how sorry you are, show him how much you love him. If you really want to be with him, you are going to have to fight for it. Don't accept defeat this early on."
Jess gave her mom a small smile. "Thanks. You always know just what to say." She stared at her mug of tea for a moment, and then took a sip. "What do I do now?"
"Well," she patted the top of Jess's hand, "I think you have two choices here. You can stay here with me, forget about Nick, and we can solve crimes like we always talked about doing. Or you can go after Nick and win him back."
Jess nodded. She was tempted to stay with her mom, but also knew the choice she had to make.
She gulped down the rest of her tea and jogged up to her room, somehow rejuvenated after that supposedly relaxing tea. Abby was still asleep so she tiptoed around her as she packed up her things and changed her clothes. She booked a flight that left in a few hours on her phone before sitting on the bed next to her sister.
She rubbed Abby's arm, gently waking her up. "Hey Abby Day," Jess sang softly to her sister.
Abby stirred, murmuring about some wicked hangover she had and telling Jess to leave her alone.
"I'm going back to L.A., Abby," she rubbed her sister's back, which was now facing her. "I wanted to say goodbye."
Abby rubbed at her eyes and turned to face her sister. Jess was glad she hadn't turned on the light, because she knew her sister would have yelled at her for it.
"You're leaving already? Did you and Nick make up so you're going home with him?" her sister asked.
"No, I'm going alone; he left sometime this morning. But I am going after him. I was stupid to leave him in the first place. We had something amazing and I let my insecurities get to me."
"I could have told you that." Abby muttered.
Jess lightly punched her sister's arm, but they both laughed.
"I need to get to the airport. Mom's going to drive me," she gave her sister a hug and kissed her forehead.
Abby nodded then turned over and closed her eyes.
Joan already had the car ready to go. Jess just had to load her things into the car, and they were off.
Joan was great at distracting Jess during the ride home, telling Jess she needed to visit more often, saying that Abby needed to find a nice guy and settle down soon, and talking about the new guy at work who kept asking her out. Jess nodded and gave her the appropriate responses. She had heard these things before, but she didn't mind the repetition.
Before Jess knew it, they were at the airport. Her mom helped her unload her stuff and gave her a long hug. Jess was sad to leave her mom, but she was a little relieved to go back to L.A. She missed the guys and she missed the kids at school. She quickly checked in and got her boarding pass and made her way to the terminal.
The closer the plane got to L.A., the more butterflies showed up in Jess's stomach. She didn't know what she was going to say to Nick. She had thought about just a simple sorry, which would probably work, because Nick could be pretty simple sometimes. She thought she could just throw her arms around him and take him right then and there, and then all would be forgiven, but she knew Nick enough to know that wouldn't fly with him. She thought about renting a mariachi band to serenade him outside his window, singing him a song of lost love and regrets, but that seemed too cheesy, and Nick would probably throw something out the window at them.
Whatever she did, it needed to show how sincere she was, and also work. She didn't know what she would do if he never forgave her.
The flight landed and she texted Cece as soon as the flight attendant announced they could turn their electronics back on.
She waited outside on a bench, waiting for Cece to pick her up. By now her stomach was doing a gymnastics routine.
Cece pulled up and got out of the car to help Jess, but not before giving her a big hug.
"I've missed you girl!" Cece squealed, and then quietly added, "How are you feeling?"
"Honestly, like I want to throw up!" Just hugged her best friend one more time, Cece always helped her feel so grounded.
They got in the car and chatted on their way to Jess's apartment. Jess caught Cece up with what happened last night. Cece berated her, like a best friend should, for kissing Sam, but was also sympathetic to her plight.
"So what do you think I should do? How do I show Nick that I am truly sorry for everything; show him that I messed up and I need him back in my life."
"Babe," Cece put took her hand off the wheel for a moment, to pat Jess's leg. "Just be yourself. Nick's may be a little crazy, but he's a smart man. Plus he is crazy about you. You should have seen him while you were gone! He was going crazy. He thought he was handling things pretty well, but I had to correct a lot of his mistakes at the bar."
Jess laughed, making her feel a little better. They moved on to other subjects. How the bartender job was going, how the models were doing, and how they knew they needed to go see Sadie and Melissa sometime soon. Before Jess knew it, they were in front of the apartment. Jess felt dizzy.
"Just give me a moment. I don't know what I'm walking into." She grabbed the door handle to keep her grounded.
"Let me get your stuff. I'll walk you up." Cece volunteered.
She grabbed Jess's things from the back and waited for Jess to get out of the car. Jess took a deep breath and muttered to herself that she could do this. She opened the door and stood up straight and tall. She kept telling herself she could do it, making her feel like the Little Engine that Could. They walked up the stairs, Jess feeling heavier with each step she took, all the while still muttering to herself. She was grateful Cece didn't look at her crazy.
They opened the apartment door, and walked in. It was surprisingly quiet. She secretly hoped that Nick may be gone, so she could prepare herself a little more. She walked into her room, noticing on the way that Nick's door was open a little.
"I'll bring the rest of your stuff over from my apartment later. You sure you want to stay here tonight?" Cece offered.
"Yeah, I need to stop running away."
Cece nodded and gave her best friend a quick hug then went on her way to her shift at the bar. Jess sat on her bed and sighed.
"What now?" She said aloud to herself.
In response she heard groaning from the next room. She had thought she was alone. She stood up and walked out of her room. She looked up and down the hall. She knew the groan had come from Nick's room. She carefully crossed the space between their two doors and lifted her hand to knock.
She hesitated. What if he's not alone? She thought. She shook that thought from her head. She knew the noises Nick made and knew that was not a sexual noise of his. He must be sick.
She slowly opened the door the rest of the way and saw Nick curled up on his bed. His blankets were everywhere and he was clutching his stomach in his sleep. She tiptoed over to him, careful to not knock over the garbage can full of throw up that she smelled, and put her hand on his forehead; he was burning up. All her worries about what was going to happen melted away. She was now in nurse mode and knew she needed to take care of Nick, because he definitely couldn't take care of himself.
She took carefully rolled him onto his back and tucked his blanket back around him. She grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom and ran it under the water. She rang out the cloth so it wouldn't drip all over the place and get Nick's pillow wet. She went back into his room and folded it before laying it on his forehead. She couldn't help but run her hand through his hair; she missed touching him. She didn't know how long he had been sleeping, but she knew he must be hungry, or at the very least thirsty. She went to the kitchen to grab him a glass of water. She set it on his night stand before going back into the kitchen to heat up a can of chicken noodle soup.
She was putting a packet of saltines on the tray next to the finished bowl of soup, when she heard Nick yelling out for their other roommates. She picked up the tray and took a deep breath before heading back to Nick's room.
She opened the door, balancing the tray in one arm.
"Hey Nick," Jess said cheerily, hoping to mask the pang of longing in her chest. "I brought you some soup!"