Haha..I know I'm the worst. But i said I would finish this story and I will!

So after a long, long ... long break ( :D ), here is finally a new chapter for everybody that is still interested in this story

"Jess?", Nick yelled through the loft as soon as he entered it.

He took a look into her room, but it was empty. "Jess, are you home?"

"In the kitchen"

He followed her voice quickly. She was standing at the counter, making some sandwiches.

Without a word, he took her face into his hands and kissed her. "I love you"

"What's going on with you?", she asked with a confused laugh.

He grinned. "Do you remember the empty bar I told you about?"

"Of course", she nodded.

"Well, I didn't want to tell you anything before I had more information, but I met the owner today and he's willing to give me the bar with the best conditions possible"

Her eyes widened. "What? How?! Tell me more"

"He's a grumpy, old dude who doesn't really care about making a lot of money. Apparently the bar is kind of family business and he really cares about it, but he never had kids so there is no one who could take over. Of course there were a lot of people interested in it, but he doesn't want his bar turn into one of those hip club with this terrible youth everywhere...his words not mine", he chuckled, "We talked a bit and I found out that even Shane tried to get the place. But he would never give it to someone with a stick up the ass, who spent their whole life behind books but has no idea how the world really works...again, his words"

Jess's smile grew wider. "So I guess he loved you then?"

"You betcha", he grinned and tossed one of the red pepper pieces, that Jess had prepared, in his mouth.

She clapped her hands with excitement. "So what's the deal? How much discount do you get for being in the grumpy old men club?"

He laughed. "It's pretty good. I don't have to buy it. I can rent it, which is perfect, because there is no way those banks would give me money. I don't like them, they don't like me"

She nodded.

"And there are a few things, that have to be fixed first. But he said, if I take care of that myself, I only have to pay 25% of the rent in the first year and 50% in the second one. To balance it out."

"That sounds amazing"

"Yeah. I have to go over the contract one more time to check if everything is okay, and do some other annoying paper work. But I guess I could start with the renovation next week"

"Listen to you. So grown up", she giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I'm proud of you"

He gave her a little smile. "Don't say that yet. There is no guarantee, that the whole thing will be a success."

She shook her head. "I don't care. I'm proud of you anyway"

For a moment, he stayed quiet. He just looked into her face. Searching for something. Anything. But all he could see was complete honesty. "Thanks", he said almost inaudible and leaned down to give her a quick, soft kiss, "I really hope it will work out and I can be...you know...better"

"Nick-", she started but he interrupted her.

"I know you don't care about how much money I make. And that's great! But I do, Jess. We will never be rich. That's for sure. But I don't want us to have to worry about money either. I wanna make this right. I want to be able to give you and the baby all the thing you deserve. In every way."

Jess let out a little happy sigh. "God, Miller...I really love you"

Nick wiped his hands over his shirt to get the sawdust off it. A rare feeling of pride filled his chest as he took a moment and looked around. It had been two week since he had started to fix the bar. And not only he had a lot of fun doing it, the bar also slowly started to look really good. He had replaced the old bar counter with a new one. Made out of wood. With a chestnut-colored coating. Luckily, he was able to reuse most of the existing chairs. But he had given them a new color too and now they looked almost new again. Jess had helped him a lot with choosing matching colors and stuff like that. But every time she tried to help him with other things, like moving furniture or carrying tools from the car inside, he just shook his head and stopped her. She was pregnant and shouldn't do any physical work. Jess always just rolled her eyes at him and Nick knew that he was over cautious. But he also knew that Jess secretly liked it, that he was so protective over her.

There was a voice coming from the door. He turned around and his eyes widened when he saw Big Bob standing there with a grin on his face.

"Bob, what are you doing here?", Nick asked surprised.

"I could ask you the same question"

Nick furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Opening a new bar without saying a word?", Bob shook his head in disapproval, but still with a little smile on his face, "Not cool, Nick"

"Wait? How do you even know about that?"

Bob shrugged. "Sid told me"

That didn't explain much. "How come Sid knows?"

"I don't know", he said while taking a look around "All I know is that all of our old friends talk about you and the bar"

Nick was pretty sure, he knew who Bob meant, when he said 'old friends'. The regulars. The old men (and women) who spent the whole day at the bar, drinking the cheapest beer on the list, because they can't afford anything else. Exactly those people who Shane wanted out of her bar. But Nick had no problem with them. Hell yeah, there were times, he had been one of them.

"They do?"

"Yeah, and they can't wait for you to open this thing"

Bob walked over to the counter and let his hands slide over it. "That's nicely done"

"Thanks", was all Nick said. His eyes still focused on Bob and with a confused expression on his face.

"You should have seen what happened after Shane fired you. First they stopped going to the bar as a protest. Sadly that had quite the opposite effect, because Shane didn't want them in there anyway. After they realized that, they started to hang out there all the time just to spite her"

That story made Nick grin. "They did?"

"Of course, man. They like you"

"Why?"

"Because you were nice to them", he chuckled, "Well no, that's not true. But you weren't nice to almost anybody. The point is, you didn't treat them differently. And you listened to their stories. Even if you answered with sarcastic comments and annoyed groans", he laughed again.

Nick didn't really know what to say. He had never thought about it, but now that Bob had mentioned them, he realized that he kind of missed all those old, drunken bastards. Most of them had been at the old bar almost every day in all those years he had work there. Sure they were dirty and weird and their stories were either boring or made up. But still. They were kind of his friends. Especially Sid. He had been a regular long before Nick even started to work at the bar and he had taught him a lot of useful stuff about life.

Bob smiled. "So, how are we doing this? What can I do to help?"

"What do you mean?"

He laughed. "You're really slow today, Nick. I want to work here"

Nick shook his head. "No, no. You can't. I mean..I don't even know if I'll make any money..."

He shrugged. "If I have to work one more day with this Jason snob, I'm gonna kill myself. Everything is better than that"

"But-"

"No but!", he cut him off, "And now show me, what I can do"

"How is your wife?", Bob asked, his mouth full of pizza, they had bought for lunch.

Nick glanced at him. "Jess is not my wife", he grumbled.

"Oh! Sensitive topic?", he sounded almost apologetic.

"No, it's nothing..."

Bob chuckled. "Come on, spill"

Nick sighed, but to be honest, he was kind of glad about the topic of this conversation. It was something, that had been on his mind for a while and he really wanted to talk about it with someone. But he was so busy with the bar, that he had no time to go out and find Tran. And for some reason, it wasn't a conversation he wanted to have with Schmidt or Winston. He wanted someone older, more experienced.

"I've been thinking about it lately...you know. Proposing. But I don't want her to think, I'm only doing it because of the baby."

"Well, would you do it only because of the baby?", Bob asked simply.

"Yeah", he said and then shook his head quickly, "I mean no. I love her and I'm pretty sure I want to spend the rest of my life with her. But if there wasn't a baby, I wouldn't propose now. We've only been dating a few month. It's so soon, you know?"

Bob shrugged. "Then don't do it. There is no shame in having a bastard child"

"Don't call him that!"

"Sorry, sorry", he chuckled and raised his big hands apologetic, "Him? So, it's a boy?"

A smile appeared on Nick's face. "Yes"

He pulled out his wallet and handed Bob an ultrasonic picture, "Here. He's 19 weeks old now."

"Cute", Bob said with a little smile and gave it back to Nick.

He took a look at it himself and couldn't fight the big grin on his face. He was just so fascinated every time he saw it. The baby was still so tiny, but you could see his fingers and his toes. Nick was so proud of him already and he couldn't get enough of this picture.

The sound of Bob's quiet laugh made him remember that he wasn't alone and he looked up, almost a bit embarrassed.

"Oh don't worry", Bob said, stood up and walked to the trash can to throw his empty beer away, "I know that feeling. When my wife was pregnant with my daughter, I was so proud I turned into one of those annoying parents who try to show the picture of their child to everyone they meet, even if it's a total stranger"

Nick laughed. He was pretty sure, he wasn't that bad.

"Back to the marriage thing", Bob started after he put away his empty pizza box, "I don't know Jess very well, but I don't think she expects anything from you, if you haven't talked about it before. So maybe just do that. But don't propose because you think you have to. That can't go well. And besides, I don't think being pregnant and planning a wedding at the same time is much fun"

Nick nodded. "Thanks, Bob"

"Alright", Bob said to end this conversation and rubbed his hands together, "Let's get back to work then"