Hey guys! Thanks for sticking with me through this- I've been moving and unpacking and it's been pretty crazy. This chapter is pretty jumpy- both chronologically and from character to character- but I hope the length kind of makes up for how long I've been gone. Hope you enjoy :~)

"What?" Schmidt barked.

"I guess it figures that the morning sickness would start when everything else goes to shit," Jess muttered, settling back into the corner of the couch.

"You- you don't look pregnant, Jessica! Are you sure?" Schmidt questioned her.

Jess rolled her swollen eyes. "I'm only six weeks along," she said.

"She went to the doctor last week," Cece supplied. Jess nodded slowly, pulling her knees up to her chest.

"Well, is it Nick's?"

"Schmidt!" Cece exclaimed, seeing her best friend's face fall. "Are you fucking serious?"

Schmidt shrugged. "I had to ask."

"Of course it's Nick's, Schmidt," Jess snapped, her ragged voice holding back sobs. "Of course it's his."

Cece gently pulled Jess up off the couch, taking her hands. "Come on, Jess. Let's go lay down." Cece led Jess into the bedroom and tucked her into the soft bed. "I'll be right back," Cece told her.

Cece ducked out of the room as Schmidt was grabbing his keys.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Back to the loft. I've got to go see if Nick is okay."

Cece pulled Schmidt in for a quick kiss before instructing him, "Seriously, though, don't tell him she's here. And not a word about anything else."

Schmidt nodded and left his girlfriend to deal with Jess.

Cece crawled into the bed beside Jess, who rolled over to face her.

"Hi, sweetie. You okay?"

Jess shook her head and Cece pulled her in close to let her cry.

It had been four weeks since Jess left. It had been twenty-eight days since Nick had seen her face, heard her voice, and tasted her lips on his.

Without a doubt, they had been the worst four weeks of his life.

He had never gone this long without seeing her in the four years that he'd known her. Three years ago, this would have been bearable- hell, it probably would have been nice to get a break from her endless quirks and whims at that point- but not now. Nick was not used to not having her around. He'd gotten to the point where he wasn't sure what to do with himself anymore he couldn't see himself going anywhere without her. After four years of friendship and two years of dating, she surrounded him even when she was gone. He couldn't go to work without seeing her sitting across the 18 inches of bar, twirling a straw in her fingers. He couldn't close up for the night without remembering the dozens of times they'd had sex on and behind the bar after closing. He couldn't stand to be at home because he saw her crocheting on the couch, making cupcakes in the kitchen (with vanilla frosting streaked across her cheek), and brushing her teeth in the bathroom.

So, for the most part, he had been holed up in his room. When he wasn't working, he slept. Schmidt and Winston were worried, to say the least. While Nick wasn't drinking himself into a coma or growing out a scraggly beard, he wasn't doing much of anything. He was quietly existing. They didn't know how to help him, though. They knew how much he loved Jess. They knew he loved her as much as a damaged, chubby flower could. He loved her with everything he had. And she- the one woman he had ever truly loved- had left him. Not much they could say or do would help him. They knew that the only thing that might alleviate what he was feeling was time. Thus, they allowed him to keep to himself.

Nick appreciated that. He didn't really want to see anyone. It was taxing enough to pour drinks and force small talk with strangers night after night.

Four weeks after Jess left, he came home from work feeling especially defeated. It would have been their second anniversary. Nick kicked his shoes off beside his bed before pulling out his nightstand drawer. He reached all the way to the back and pulled out a tiny velvet box. He flipped it open, biting his lip as he remembered the plans he'd been making for the night. He'd wanted to take her out for dinner and then just walk around the town. He didn't know where he wanted to go, but he thought that he'd know when and where to stop. He would have told her how much he loved her, and how she'd changed his life. He would have pulled the box out of his pocket and gotten down on one knee. Jess would have cried- she always did when she was overwhelmed like that- and she would have said yes. But instead, Nick was sitting on his bed, staring intently at a diamond ring that Jess would never see. He'd spent weeks picking it out- he had gone to fourteen different places before finding it. The band was thin silver, and the central diamond was circular and surrounded by a circle tiny diamonds. It was the single most expensive thing Nick had ever bought- hell, it had cost him more than he spent on his car- but he'd thought it was more than worth it.

Nick snapped the box shut, frustrated, and shoved it back into his drawer. He really needed a drink.

In the four weeks since she'd last spoken to Nick, Jess was doing surprisingly well aside from her unrelenting morning sickness. It had taken her a few days to stop crying, but she had stopped. And even though the constant ache in the back of her throat told her otherwise, she told herself that she was fine on her own. She rationalized with herself, fighting the urge to go running back to apartment 4D, by remembering every word he'd said to her that night, the "hot for teacher" comment, the "I hate you, Jessica Day," the numerous "fuck you"s. She remembered the sting she'd felt with each verbal blow and imagined raising a child with someone that could say things like that.

It would never work. It could never work. So Jess put on a brave face and got on with her life, even though she couldn't get Nick Miller's stupid face out of the back of her mind. She had sent Cece to retrieve most of her belongings from the loft, and she was searching for an apartment of her own. She put all of her effort into that and finishing out the school year on a high note. If you didn't know something was wrong with her...well, you wouldn't be able to tell.

It was a cool July night when Jess decided to go sit on the beach for a while. She'd had a rough day and was in desperate need of some peace and quiet. That morning, she'd had her second official doctor's appointment with Sadie. Sadie didn't know what had happened in the month since she'd last seen Jess, and she'd unknowingly asked Jess if Nick was excited about the baby.

This, of course, had caused the previously bubbly Jess to unravel. Sadie apologized over and over, and Jess told her through her tears that it was okay- she didn't know; it wasn't her fault. So Jess went home after learning that her little peanut-sized baby was doing well at 10 weeks. Jess had been doing really well for the past couple of weeks, but after that appointment, she went home and cried for hours. She missed Nick. She missed his scruffy hair and his genuine smiles and his sweet personality. She wanted nothing more than to call him up and beg for him to hold her. But Jess knew she couldn't do that. He'd tried. He'd tried to talk to her, to get through to her, and she hadn't responded. It was too late for her to come around now.

On top of it all, tonight would have been their second anniversary.

After deciding she'd spent too long wallowing in her misery, Jess reluctantly left the comfort of her bed and told Cece she was going on a walk. She pulled on a crewneck sweatshirt, trying to pretend it wasn't one of Nick's, and left the apartment.

Fifteen minutes later, she was sitting in the sand, letting the breeze calm her troubled soul.

Cece walked back into her bedroom, eyeing Schmidt. Jess had just left, and Cece was worried about her.

"Is she okay?" Schmidt asked quietly. They'd both been listening to her crying all afternoon, her pitiful sobs echoing through the small apartment. It was the first time she'd broken down like this since the week of the breakup.

"I don't know," Cece sighed. "She needs him, Schmidt. Sure, he was an asshole...he said some things he shouldn't have, but she needs him."

"Cece, if he tries again and she doesn't respond, I don't think he'll make it," Schmidt warned, his eyes boring into Cece's. "He's barely even there. Mentally, I mean."

"I'm not worried about Nick, you idiot!" Cece exclaimed, lightly slapping Schmidt on the arm.

"You think I'm not worried about Jess too?" Schmidt responded, scowling. "I love Jess- hell, we all do. Winston's worried too, and he doesn't even know about the baby!" Schmidt whispered the last words in hushed tones. "But Nick's my bro, Cece, and I 've gotta look out for him too."

Cece sighed. "She loves Nick. Jess loves Nick with everything she has. She's just afraid he's going to hurt her again."

Nick stared intently at his glass of rosé. Nick wasn't one for fruity, girly drinks- but pink wine was her drink. He had always secretly loved when he kissed her and could taste it on her lips. As he lifted the glass to his own lips to drain the rest of the sweet liquid, he swore he could taste her beneath it. Nick set the empty glass down on the coffee table in front of him and picked up his phone. He flipped it open, checking for messages for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. He didn't know why he even bothered looking- he knew she would never speak to him again. Too restless and depressed to stay in the loft, Nick set his phone back down and shuffled out the front door. As he padded downstairs and out of his apartment building, he didn't know where he was going. He just walked. He surveyed the moon and the stars above him, wishing that he, too, could be a million miles away.

Half an hour later, Nick realized he was close to the beach. Thinking that the gentle ebb and flow of the tide might distract him, he quietly headed to the sandy shore. When his feet hit the sand, he looked around to find a good spot. The beach was mostly empty this late at night. Nick saw one person sitting in the sand hugging his or her knees a ways down the beach, but other than that, there was really nobody around.

Instead of sitting down, Nick kicked off his shoes, cuffed his jeans, and waded into the shallow water. He stared out at the endless stretch of ocean that laid before him, and feeling his frustration coming to an all-time high, let out a loud noise. It wasn't exactly a scream or a groan or a cry- more of a combination of the three- but it made him feel remotely better. He dug his toes into the wet sand and slipped his hands into his pockets.

Jess had been as still as a statue, sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees and her chin resting on top of her kneecaps. She had almost laughed when she felt her belly press against her thighs, reminding her that her flexibility would be severely limited in the coming months. She didn't really look pregnant yet. Jess thought that she just looked a little bloated, kind of like she'd eaten too much pizza in one sitting. She'd started crying yet again when she thought of how big she would get- not because she was scared of her growing belly, but because Nick would never get to see it. How stupid am I? she scoffed at herself for having such a ridiculous thought. She was wiping a hot tear from her cheek when she heard it.

A scream. Well, it wasn't exactly a scream, but Jess barely noticed. Jess felt her heart jump into her throat. She knew that scream. That was Nick Miller's scream.

Again, I apologize for the weird jumpiness of it all. I'm kind of having a hard time with this story and trying to figure out where it's going, so just bear with me. Please leave some honest reviews- I think some constructive criticism would help me out at this point :~)