And now back to your regularly scheduled programming... Haha, just a quick update before I head off on a crazy week! Before we get started though, another thank you to Newgirl78 for all of the help she has given me with this story, even more so in these last few chapters!

Chapter 19

The odd balance of professionalism and friendship continued between Nick and Jess for the remainder of the week. Nick didn't want to think that there might come a day where Jess would only tolerate him because of Aly, but he was treading a fine line with their relationship. The times Aly wasn't with him – which was surprisingly minimal, with Jess out every other night – provided ample time to think about how terribly this could end.

So, Nick decided that he needed a distraction.

After Aly had so adamantly resisted going home that night last week, he decided that he would make his extra bedroom into Aly's bedroom. He didn't see any use for it, other than an office, but he'd recently realized that he wasn't the kind of guy for a desk. He'd once dreamed of being the guy in charge – but now that he (kind of) was, it just felt wrong. It wasn't who he was. Even at work, he preferred to do the paperwork from the couch in the back.

At least, that was his excuse. It didn't help that he'd been unusually excited about this prospect since she'd started being left in his care on a regular basis. He had a chance to really do something special and surprise her.

He thought that the hardest part of his idea would be the actual labor. Painting a room, putting together furniture… All those little hobbies that required careful attention were just what he needed to get his mind off of everything. However, once he got to the hardware store, he quickly realized that he was in over his head.

The simple act of picking out the paint color presented itself as a nightmare.

Between the swatches of playfully bright hues, brochure upon brochure of project ideas reminded him of exactly how difficult this could be; how utterly creative that he was not.

There was even a room with a slide coming out of a deck-like bed. A deck and a slide.

Then came the bedroom complete with a tree house and forest mural. Nick could put a dresser together, sure, no problem, but building a tree house and painting a mural was a stretch for his home improvement abilities. What did they take him for, an Extreme Makeover intern?

Each packet came with instructions for no less than fifteen colors and countless pieces of furniture. Well, maybe not fifteen exactly, but it was pretty damn close.

He quickly snapped a picture of a princess-castle themed room and, without thinking about how it would be received, sent it to Jess.

How do normal people pick out paint colors? Because this is beyond me. He tagged along with it.

He figured she was at lunch, as it didn't take her long to reply.

Used to be like that, then thought about how a 16 year old would feel about a castle in her bedroom.

Nick chuckled at the thought, and his phone buzzed again.

Not to mention, she'd hate to have friends over.

At sixteen, he probably would've still used a tree house, but he decided against letting Jess know that. He didn't have to think too hard about his reaction to Aly's part, though.

Whatever it takes to keep the boys away.

It took Jess a little longer to respond this time, and it was a conversation-ending Haha.

This type of project shouldn't have him thinking about his daughter and boys. Yet, it did. For everything that he and Jess disagreed on, he hoped that their daughter's eventual social life would not be one of them. He was a teenage boy once, he knew exactly what those guys would think of Aly. If she was anything like her mother, anyway, Nick had a pretty good reason to be skeptical. Jess had a way of getting him to do really stupid things when he was thirty; he couldn't imagine what it would've been like had he met her as a teenager.

He shook his head. He had at least ten years before anything like that became an issue.

Hopefully.

Who was he kidding? She wasn't dating until she was thirty.

Done.

"Can I help you?" A woman asked from behind, and Nick turned to see a woman in a paint-stained apron smiling up at him. Her apron had a little badge that read Jill. Her friendly smile gave Nick the impression that she ran into panic-stricken parents a lot.

He sighed. "That obvious, huh?"

"Yeah," she chuckled, eying one of the brochures in his hand. "I'm assuming you're looking for a little girl's room?"

He nodded. Jill then turned to a few shades on the pastel side, pulling out some pinks and another palette with complimenting colors.

"I wouldn't go for the display rooms, or anything really bright," she began, "for a baby, you don't want to go overboard, it's – "

"Oh, no! She's not a baby," He laughed. "She's three. Well, almost four."

Jill gave him a look, and he understood why. He should have seen that coming, anyway. She had assumed first-time kid's room decorating meant he was looking for a baby. That's how normal people did things, anyway. Fell in love, got married, bought a house, decorated a baby's room…

Nick tried not to think about how much he wished he could've done it that way. A big, crazy room wouldn't ever make up for the time he lost with Aly.

Yet, here he was, shopping for his three-year-old daughter who he'd known for almost three months. He was minus the plus one, minus the whole 'decide this together' thing.

His face must've read hurt.

"Sorry," she recovered, shaking her head. "I just assumed…"

Nick let his expression soften. No turtle faces in public.

"It's complicated," Nick explained. It wasn't exactly uneasy; he'd been explaining the situation long enough not to be embarrassed about it. The hardware store just wasn't the place to get into that conversation.

Jill shrugged. "I've heard weirder."

Nick took some comfort in this. He and Jess were pretty twisted, so it was good to know that there were crazier people in the world.

As Nick took in all of the implications, Jill rearranged some of her swatches, pulling out a larger selection of colors. He spied some greens, more pastel purples and yellows, and even some neutral cream colors.

"My suggestion is to start off with a color you like. Try a few on the wall, see which one you like best, and then pick a palette from that." She handed him a couple more swatches and even a sheet that gave furniture matches to the lighter colors. "Oh, and keep the furniture in mind."

He nodded, rifling through a few of the booklets. This made it seem a little easier.

Jill also took him around to a few more brands of paint. He was vaguely listening to her as she explained the difference between eggshell and high-gloss… It hit him then that the last time he had done anything like this was when Jess had asked him to paint her room in the loft. The memory happened at that very store… In that very aisle.

"Ooh, Nick! Look at this one!" Jess skipped over to the section of blues, picking out a threateningly dark navy. "I think it'll match my bedspread."

"I dunno, Jess," he shook his head, "seems really dark for you."

She frowned. "But this is the big thing in all those magazines!"

"Yeah, but they don't live in a loft," he countered, still smiling at her enthusiasm.

"You're such a party-pooper," Jess shook her head, then flitted over to a bright green. "I like this one, too."

"Jess," Nick grabbed her shoulder, "way too bright! You'll wake up with a headache every morning."

Grumbling, Jess put the swatch back. She pulled out another color, this time a middle-of-the-line blue. She presented it to Nick, who shook his head again with a smug smile.

"You've got to be kidding me! Is there anything you think is right?"

"No," he laughed, "I mean, there is. But these shades will dry so much darker than what that shows."

"And that's a problem because…?" Jess tilted her head, her wide eyes just daring him to answer.

Oh how he loved getting her riled up like that.

"Because you'll just have a harder time painting over it when you move out." He defended. Painting over that stupid mural in Schmidt's old room was hard enough. Two layers of primer and the outline of the monster was still visible if you looked at it just right…

Jess mumbled something about him being right, then stopped in her tracks.

"You planning on me moving out anytime soon, Miller?" She arched an eyebrow, putting those little hands on her hips, staring him down in the middle of a hardware store.

He had to laugh. "Only if it's across the hall," he replied coolly. Since when had flirting become so effortless?

"Welllll," she drawled, taking his had, "I say that you move across the hall."

That just wouldn't do. He couldn't just leave his bedroom! He'd been there for so long already!

"Well, my room's bigger!"

"My room's better!"

"You keep leftover food under your bed!"

"You have shoes under yours that you can't even remember buying!"

Jess narrowed her eyes at him. Nick's lips tugged downward.

They continued to stare at each other, clearly making no progress towards a decision. It occurred to him that they were having this heated debate in the middle of a home improvement store, but his pride in front of Jess was worth more than that of the public eye.

"So… Decide on a color yet?" he started.

Jess stuck her tongue out at him, then turned back to the wall of colors. Wordlessly, he watched her pick and choose at each possibility, her curls bouncing at each excited hop. He knew that she wouldn't listen to him about a paint color until she actually saw it on the wall, though it would make the afternoon's arguments that much more fun.

It was a pretty good day to be Nick Miller.

"Sir?"

Jill's question was enough to pull him out of his little daydream. The paint in front of him came back into focus.

"Oh, sorry," he shook his head. "Just… reading all these labels…"

Way to be weird.

By now, Nick assumed Jill thought he was crazy. If she did, though, she didn't show it. With a smile and a nod, she continued on her explanation of paint finishes. Nick didn't quite want to break it to her that he knew most of it already – mostly because the last time he'd done this kind of project was for the mother of the child he was shopping for. This time, though, he hoped the occupant would stick around long enough to enjoy it.

"So have you thought about any colors?" She asked, noticing that Nick was favoring one of the swatches.

"I really like this yellow," he explained, producing a very light pastel on the swatch. "It's not too much, is it?"

Jill shook her head. "I think it really fits. It's a color she can grow up into, you know?"

"Yeah," Nick agreed, quite proud of his reasoning skills. Take that, parenthood. "And I think almost any furniture color would go with it."

In the end, Nick settled on three different color samples – the yellow he liked, another pastel yellow, but in a darker shade, and a lavender shade. Purple (even in it's lightest form) was a stretch, yes, but he couldn't help but try to match her favorite teddy bear.

The paint samples in his hand, Nick also grabbed a few paintbrushes and buckets to start, with a promise to return when he decided on a color. An image of his daughter's room was coming into focus. He couldn't say he'd ever been as excited about painting as he was now. Even standing in the check-out line, he had a huge smile plastered on his face.

Do people whistle when they're happy like this?

He really wasn't that good at whistling, but it felt like a fitting thing to do on the drive home.

Once Nick reached his house, supplies in hand, he pushed some of the leftover boxes out of the spare bedroom and started to set up to paint some of the colors. He laid a small tarp in the empty corner, picking up his first choice. He began to tear open the pouch for the brighter yellow, but pulled it just a little too hard.

With a sickening squirt, the paint was forced out of the packet and left a stream right across his shirt.

"Ugh!" he groaned, dragging a finger across the line. It was a nice color, just not on his shirt. "Guess it's not gonna be you."

He tossed the packet down on the tarp, then proceeded to his bedroom to change.

Halfway there, though, he heard the buzz of his phone. He had to wipe the paint-covered finger on his jeans before he reached for the phone. When he finally picked it up, he not only noticed that it was an unfamiliar number, but that it had called him four times in the past fifteen minutes.

Nothing good ever came out of calls like that.

Quickly, he pressed the button to answer.

"Hello?"

"Nick?" A frantic woman's voice on the other end asked. Where had he heard that before?

"Yes…" He confirmed, his heart hammering. Nothing good was going to come out of this; he could feel that much.

"This is Liz. Aly's teacher? We've been trying to get a hold of you and Jess for twenty minutes," she sighed, almost sounding relieved. Almost. "Aly had an allergic reaction to something… Her hands got swollen… She didn't have any medicine with her, so we called an ambulance."

An ambulance? With hospitals and sick people?

Nick had taken a lot in his life. A lot. This, though. Time started to slow, and the beat of his own heart rang in his ears. His insides were twisting menacingly. His hand gripped his phone tighter.

"Where is she?" He questioned, already halfway out the door.

"I'm with her. We're on our way to the hospital."

Nick was already in his car.

"I'll be there in ten."

I know, I know, everyone hates a cliffhanger. BUT, you guys get the season premier tomorrow, so think about that and don't be too mad at me :)

Four more chapters to go!