Okay, so this chapter was never in the plan, but I love me some soft and sensitive Nick, so I thought I'd make some changes. On a side note, I'm super happy to say I now have a go-to gal when I get a little blurred as to my direction. Shout out to marsbarr! Oh and go read her new story, its really really cool: s/12351929/1/Twice-the-Miller

As always, thanks for the reviews! Enjoy!

The next morning Jess opened her bedroom door to an unusual vibe coming from the kitchen. Unusual considering it was eight in the morning and the loft was filled with laughter and non-grumpy conversation. Yawning as she stretched her arms up to chuck her hair into a messy bun, she wandered towards the source of the sound. Just as the kitchen came into view, Nick leaped out of his seat and over towards her.

"Jess! Good morning!" He grabbed her in a nervous embrace, kissing her cheek and whispering in her ear.

"Please just play along… I'll explain everything later."

"Uhhh… wha-" She stood shocked as he grabbed her hand and dragged her into the kitchen but before she even got a chance to shake off her confusion, she was pulled into a much tighter and warmer hug.

"Oh Jess! It's so so good to see you!"

"Mrs Miller! Hi!" Jess relaxed into the familiar hug.

"Nick didn't tell me you were stopping by!" She said, directing her eyes to Nick in passive daggers.

"That's because Nicky didn't know! It was a birthday surprise for my little boy." She said squeezing his cheeks.

There was an awkward silence as Nick watched Jess settle down into a stool at the bench, her brain working over time trying to understand what was going on.

"So how long are you in town for, Mrs Miller?" Jess squinted her eyes at Nick as he placed a cup of tea in front of her.

"Jess, honey, we've been over this! Call me Bonnie! Or if our Nicky over here gets a move on, I'm sure it'll be 'ma' soon enough!" Bonnie said as sincere and enthusiastic as possible as she gave Nick a little nudge and Jess a wink.

Nick froze for a moment, before squinting his eyes and clenching his teeth, staring at Jess in anticipation of her reaction. Much to his surprise, her eyes went huger than ever as a very amused grin fell upon her face, staring back to Nick in an obviously mocking manner.

Bonnie was quick to interrupt the moment, continuing on with her answer.

"I'm only here for a couple of nights, so you don't have to worry. I'll just set up camp in Nick's room and be no bother! I promise!"

"Really 'ma'," Jess said, shooting an exaggerated wink at Nick. "You don't want to sleep in Nick's room. Take mine, it's much more comfortable. Nick doesn't like mine much anyway, do you Nicky?" She said leaning over the counter to squeeze his cheeks just like Bonnie had done a minute before.

Nick quickly grabbed her wrists from his face and pulled them away so he was holding them on the bench between them. Nick flicked a look to see that his mother was distracted by the eggs in the frypan and then turned back to Jess with a full turtle face, shaking his head.

"Jessica Day you just keep stirring the pot, won't you?" He said while he attempted to stay mad and keep the smile from taking over his face.

She nodded her head with a smug smirk on her lips.

"You have some serious explaining to do, oh soon-to-be fiancé of mine.'

Their moment was once again interrupted as Bonnie turned around and looked confusingly at the two's strange interaction.

"What are your plans today, Jess? Want to have some 'girl-time'?" Now it was Nick's turn to smirk at Jess.

"Oh well, actually, Nick and I were going to go shopping for some boring old school supplies... weren't we Nick?" Jess spoke the last part through her teeth as she stared at him firmly.

"Oh yeh… big week of back to school prep for my old lady over here."

Jess spat out her tea as she failed to contain her laughter. This is going to be so much fun she thought.

"Oh you don't mind if I tag along, do you? I haven't been to a good mall outside of Chicago in years! You won't even know I'm there! I promise!"

Nick shot a worried look to Jess, who's face had turned just as serious.

"Oh, uh, yeh Bonnie, sure thing." She placed her cup in the sink as she turned to face Bonnie again.

"We'll just go and get ready so we can get going." Awkwardly turning to face Nick she reached her hand out to pull him along behind her.

"Come on 'babe'." She said with a smirk.

Dragging him through her bedroom door, she slammed it shut as soon as he was a centimetre inside.

"Ooooh Nicholas Miller. What have you done?" She stretched out all the words into an extremely lecturing tone as she shook her head and stood so close to him that he was trapped between her and the door.

"Okay I can explain… Ma started calling me a lot… like A LOT. She was so worried about me and I just hate having ma worry, you know? She's got enough on her plate with the boys at home, I didn't need her stressing about me. Plus, I didn't have that many minutes left on my phone so I –"

"Still waiting for an answer, Nick." Jess interrupted, taking a step back and softening up a little in her body language.

"She loves ya, Jess. She knows you take care of me. You're like the only person that my mum approves of to take care of me. So, since the break-up she's been going crazy that I've got no one out here who I can really go to. Like Schmidt and Winston, sure, but not like I can go to you. So, it kinda just slipped out one day that we were back together…" He looked at her so raw that it made her grip her elbows to hide the goose bumps. "I mean, we look after each other, Jess, we always will and in the end that's all my ma wants to hear."

Jess held her eyes closed for a minute in an attempt to bite back the new tears that had begun to overcome them. This was that Nick Miller. The guy who she fell for all those years ago. He was back and he was opening himself right up to her.

Opening her eyes slowly, she found him staring so honestly at her, waiting for the opportunity to meet her eyes and attempt to read her thoughts. Get any answer out of her he could.

"Nick…" Her voice was kind of shaky, scared to release in case the tears came back. "How long does your mum think we've been back together for?"

"Ha. Funny thing…"

"Yeah, I'm guessing it's about to get real funny in here."

"Since about two months after we broke up…."

"WHAT?" She leaned forward and slapped his arm.

"You cannot be serious, Nick? We have to go out there and act like a couple who's been together for what, three years? Oh and here's an interesting part, we're not even together in the first place?"

"Look Jess –"

Jess took a deep breath and waved her hands in front of her.

"No, Nick, I'm sorry, I'm overreacting. We can totally do this…" She put her hand to her head as she closed her eyes again.

"If you don't feel comfortable or something, Jess, just…" He gently grabbed her arms away from her face and ducked down to catch her eyes. "We don't have to do this, Jess. I really threw you in the deep end here. It's my mess. I shouldn't have –"

"No no no we can definitely do this, Nick. I mean, how hard can it be. We've done it before, right?"

"I swear; she'll be gone before you know it!"

"I'm not gonna make this easy for you, Miller. We're talking all expenses paid, first class ticket on the Nick Miller express." She squinted her eyes as she realised what she had said. "What I mean is, you're going to be the best boyfriend ever. Got it?"

It was all becoming quite amusing for Nick as he watched her beginning to get excited. He just stood there nodding with an entertained grin.

"Oh and one more thing Jess… Reagan…. everyone in between me and you…" He gestured between the two of them. "Didn't exist, okay? Clean slate."

Jess nodded slowly as she looked from his eyes to her feet.

"Works for me." She said softly.

A couple of hours later and they were sitting across from one another in the food court waiting for Bonnie to meet up with them.

"I forgot how good we actually are at this, Jess." Nick said with a chuckle as he sipped his shake.

"Oh please, Nick. You owe all of your public displaying of affection skills to me! I don't think I let go of your hand when we were actually dating." She laughed as he couldn't help but look down to her hands as he shook his head.

"I wasn't that bad a boyfriend, Jess. I put up with a lot of crap from you for a very long time."

"You weren't a bad boyfriend, Nick, definitely not what I'm saying. I just mean, all those girls between then and now, they owe me big time. I brought you out of your little grumpy old man shell." She said the last bit in a pouty baby voice as he she reached across the table and took his hand in hers.

He took in a deep breath at the gesture that she performed so naturally. It had been a very long time since they could do something like this without making a big deal of it. He stared at their now gentle grip as she flipped his hand palm up and broke the moment with a major tone change.

"Oh my god, Nick! When was the last time you moisturised your hands?" She yelled firm and motherly, reaching into her bag to pull out a travel edition hand lotion.

"Jessica! Stop!" He laughed as he tried to pull his hands off her. "I hate when you make me wear this girly stuff!"

"Oh shut up, Nick. It's for your own good." She held his hand firmly as she began twisting the lid off the strawberry scented cream. "I can't believe you let it get this out of control, Nicholas. How did you live without me for this long?" She laughed as she began to rub the lotion gently and softly, with all her concentration.

He was completely mesmerised by her ability to do something so intimate and sweet, so casually. His silence got into her head as she was slowly starting to realise how weird this was. How quickly she was falling back into 'Nick's girlfriend, Jess' and how comfortable she was being just that.

Pausing her hand movements, she slowly moved her eye's up to meet his, which were now completely overthrown by her now parted lips and intense gaze.

"I won't lie to ya, Jess, it's been a long few years." He mumbled with a slight chuckle, his voice sounding so weak and vulnerable.

She couldn't resist licking her lips as she watched him fix his gaze down towards them. This is it. He's going to kiss me. Finally. Her heart rate started to fly through the roof as he began to lean in.

"Nicky! I brought you some sauce for you fries!" Nick dropped her hands as he flipped out of his trance to look at Bonnie who was standing there with a smile.

"Sorry to interrupt, I just thought you'd like some barbeque." She said with a giggle as she walked around to take a seat next to him.

Nick shook his head as he looked to Jess who was clearly deep in thought, staring into the table with her finger holding her up from her temple.

"Uh, I've got some errands to run so I'll be heading off." Jess slowly stood up from the table, avoiding making contact with the other two as she slid on her cardigan. C'mon Jess… She thought. Don't make this weird.

Walking around to his side of the table, she placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned forward to lay a soft kiss to his temple.

"See you at home, Nick." She smiled, the most sensitive of smiles as she turned to look at Bonnie. "Enjoy your lunch, Bonnie!"

"Oh Nicky…" Bonnie said, shaking her head with a soft smile. "I've never seen you so in love."

Nick let off the biggest sigh, with a hint of laughter in confirmation.

"I'm in real deep, ma. I couldn't even explain it."

Nick stared to his hands as he began nervously playing with his fingers. Yep, he was a goner.

Nick and Bonnie returned home after a few more hours of retail therapy, much to Nick's displeasure. But if he was going to be honest with himself, he had too many other things on his mind to actually care about the clothes shops he was being dragged into.

When they walked inside the loft they were met with a a complete silence and no sign of life.

"Winston's with Aly tonight, and Schmidt and Cece are probably out being all married as usual." Nick responded to a confused looking Bonnie.

"And Jess?" Bonnie replied, raising her eyebrows.

"Running errands, remember." He said matter of factly.

"Look Nicky, I really hope I didn't interrupt something important back there. She did leave in kind of hurry."

"Ma, it's fine." He sighed, I gotta tell her the truth. "There's actually something I gotta –"

Just as he was about to confess to his mum that he really didn't have Jess where he wanted her, Jess left his room in her flannel pyjama set.

"Hey Bonnie, my room's all set up for you! Fresh sheets and towels on the end of the bed."

"Oh thank you, my dear! I might just grab a quick shower before I head off to bed, it's getting late!" She leaned over and gave Jess a quick hug before winking to Nick and bouncing off to the bedroom.

Nick just looked at Jess. A warm and soft gaze, but no words to go with it. Her cheeks broke out in a blush as she tucked in her lips and dropped her shoulders in a sigh.

"Thanks for today, Jess. I really appreciate it… I really couldn't live without you." He chuckled.

She laughed as she continued to do nothing but stare at him, leaning on the wall of the hallway entrance.

"Uh, good news is, Winston's bed is vacant tonight… so you get the 'Miller suite' all to yourself…" He stuttered as he tried to cover his nerves. Why is she looking at me like that?

"Nick…" She raised an eyebrow as she continued to give off the most in control vibe. "I'll see you in bed." She laughed as she turned and wandered to his room.

He wasted a half an hour on the couch watching the TV and drinking some beer, trying to build up the courage to go in there.

Finally, standing up, he found his legs carrying him to his bedroom door and before he had the chance to stop himself, he was knocking gently. Peaking his head through the door, he paused as his eyes adjusted to see her fast asleep and perfectly still in the middle of the bed.

Swallowing hard, he shut the door quietly and made his way to the side she was taking over the least. He pulled the blankets back as slowly as possible and slid underneath. Staring at her for a moment, he had an insane burst of courage as he pushed an arm underneath her body and pulled her body in close to his. Her eyes began to blink open slowly as a smile began to form on her lips. She rolled into him and curled up upon his chest, her body moulding to his like it did so long ago.

"Finally." She mumbled as she felt his heart beating fast underneath her.

"Goodnight Jess." He laughed as he ran his now super soft hand up and down her back until she was back to sleep.