In honor of July 4th (you'll see after this chapter), I'm posting this a little early. I'm heading out of town this weekend, so my updates may be sparse until next week, but we'll see.

This chapter took me awhile, not gonna lie. It's a long one - as promised - and I hope I did it justice.

Chapter 3

There were no words.

It was undeniable. She… She was his.

He really didn't need to ask that question; nor the how or the when, because he had a pretty good timeline in his head of that. The scene before him assuaged most of his previous concerns, but raised many, many more.

Jess appeared too terrified to say the first words.

"I just came to, uh… make sure that you were okay."

His words were shaky, barely scratching the surface of what he actually felt like.

Jess nodded, her lips pursed into a tight smile. She moved aside, tilting her head just so to indicate that she wanted him to follow. Nick obliged, although his body had already gone numb, his stare not leaving the child resting on Jess's shoulder.

Her round, curious eyes looked back at Nick. There was still enough baby left in her to leave room to determine who exactly she favored the most, but when she looked at him, it was hard to see past a familiar face. Her eyes, although the striking color of her mother's, were very similar to pictures Nick had seen of his mother when she was young.

Nick reached out to brush a strand of hair from her cheek, and the girl immediately pulled away and buried her head into the crook of Jess's neck.

He couldn't deny that he had been rejected by a lot of girls in his lifetime, for various reasons, but Nick felt like this one had to have been the worst. His heart sank, and his mind was racing. There were just so many things to ask.

But damn they had made a cute kid.

Nick stood there wordlessly for what felt like hours, watching Jess move her hands up and down the back of her daughter. He noticed that there was a little more gentleness about Jess when she was in her element, a trait that was in stark contrast to the woman he had met with earlier. It was as if this little girl brought back the Jess that Nick had fallen in love with so long ago.

Finally, the girl picked up her head and looked up, tugging on her mother's neck for attention. Jess's gaze was nothing short of affectionate.

"Who's this?"

Her voice made Nick's knees go weak; it even sent a shiver down his spine. He was thinking the exact same thing.

"Yeah, Jess," he motioned. "Who am I?"

"This…" Jess took a deep breath. "This is Nick."

No, he thought, I'm her fath…

It was hard to even finish the thought. So, instead, he kept his inner freak-out from coming to the surface by looking at Jess again.

"Yeah, I'm Nick," he nodded. "But can I ask who this is?"

Jess glared at him for his stark manner. "Ask her," she nudged the little girl from her shoulder. "Aly, what is your name?"

Aly. Her name is Aly.

His eyes flickered to the toddler again, and her cheeks flushed even more than they already were. She buried her head into Jess's neck one more time.

"You can do it, don't be shy," Jess whispered. "Remember? We worked on it the other day."

Aly looked up, locking eyes with her mother as Jess opened her mouth.

"Allison Cora Day," they said in unison. Jess's face lit up, grabbing Aly's tiny hand, and the sight of mother and daughter made Nick's insides turn to the equivalent of gelatin.

"That's a pretty name," Nick commented, hoping to put Jess (and Aly) more at ease.

She smiled weakly at him, much different than the one Aly had gotten out of her. Another miserable silenced threatened, then Aly yawned.

"Time to get you to bed, missy," Jess concluded. She turned around, holding up her index finger to Nick. Just gimme a minute. Even after all those years away, she was still able to talk to him with just a look and a motion.

Having a child together probably didn't hurt that, either.

As Jess walked into the opposing room, Nick felt the worry begin to creep back into the back of his mind. What will everyone say? Julia? His mom?

Would he be cut out for this?

He had a daughter.

What if he was terrible? What if he left her in the car at the store?

Why did Jess take her away?

The thoughts, images, and sounds of their last night together came flooding back, and he had to lean his head on his hands to just get it together. Balling his hands into fists, letting all the tension settle there, he rose slightly from the couch, quietly approaching the soft light from the nearest doorway.

He heard Jess's voice right before he got to the door, the lullaby she sang softly building. He had never heard the song before, but it didn't stop him from getting lost in the words.

"So don't let me be, let me be, let me be lonely, tonight."

Nick peered around the corner, just enough to see Jess crouched by Aly's bed, tucking in the blankets around her. Jess sang on quietly, though the intensity of the lullaby carried on.

"While we're young and alive - take the keys to my car, and the keys to my heart, and just drive…"

He walked further into the doorway, enough to finally catch a glimpse of Aly. Her eyelids were closed, and Jess brushed a few strands of hair from her daughter's face.

"Oh, don't let me, let me be lonely…" she finished, barely a whisper. She bent to kiss Aly's forehead, catching a glimpse of Nick in the door. She turned – he was sure she was about to glare at him again – and surprised him by motioning him over.

The steps he took to her felt like miles, and as he drew closer, he noticed some pictures tacked up to the wall, some even taped to boxes still sitting around the room. He couldn't tell what they were, but it was clear that Aly had drawn them.

When he reached the bedside, Jess looked up at him, then down at her.

"Why didn't you tell me, Jess?" He asked, pleading.

"Not now," she whispered. "She's asleep – I thought you should be able to see her when she's not upset."

They peered down together, and even in the low light of her bedroom, he tried to memorize every feature about Aly. He felt Jess's hand rest softly on his shoulder. It made his heart do weird things, and it was like she was holding him down to earth, but it didn't take away from the sight before him.

"Take a picture," Jess urged. "I think it'll help."

His hands fumbled for his phone, adjusting the screen until he could get a good frame in the light. Pressing the button, the back of his phone lit up with the unintentional flash, and they took collective intakes of breath.

Thankfully, Aly didn't wake. She stirred, but then her lips pulled down into a deep frown before she settled back into the pillow.

That face. The one Jess used to tease him endlessly for, the one he could mimic in a heartbeat.

Twenty minutes ago, he didn't think Aly had anything else she'd inherited from him. She was already proving him wrong.

He quickly disabled the flash and got one more picture of her face, just in case anyone had any shred of doubt left after the first.

"I didn't teach her that," Jess insisted, her voice still low, as they made their way out of the room. "She just started doing it. Part of the reason we came back."

As she closed the door, another wave of emotion crashed over Nick.

Life was not going to be the same.

His natural fight or flight instinct was pulling him away, tempting him with the life he would never see again.

Nick refused to let that thought even muddle his mind.

Once again, he was faced with the realization that he could not shut down. There was so much to do, so much to say, and the feeling of being completely powerless couldn't drain him like he usually let it.

"Allison Cora," he said quietly, mostly just to let something, anything, out.

Jess had led him to another room, motioning for him to sit down on the bed. There would have been days, long ago, when the gesture would've been taken in a different direction, but Nick knew better this time. They just needed a quiet place.

"Please don't tell me," Nick began, "that you named our daughter after a character on Downton Abbey."

He was only half-joking.

Jess smiled sheepishly, and this alone was able to calm Nick down a bit. The mood was slightly lifted.

"No," Jess replied, her tone sheepish, "Cora was my grandmother's name. It just worked out that she is also a very elegant character on one of my favorite shows."

Nick nodded, soaking it in. "And her first name? It's not after the girl I…"

"No!" Jess scoffed, almost offended, and fought back the urge to swat his arm like she used to. "Not the girl you lost your virginity to, no! Her name is Allison because that was also your grandmother's name, which, now that I think about it, is a weird coincidence. But anyway, you took me by her house in Chicago that last Christmas. You seemed to really miss her."

"Oh," Nick bowed his head. Leave it to him to not see that connection from the start. "Sorry, this is just a lot to take in."

Jess put a hand on his shoulder again. "Her first name was almost Nicole, for you," she admitted, "but when she was born, I saw so much of you in her, that I knew the world couldn't handle a Nikki and a Nick that were already so much alike."

Nick felt his chest constrict. There was so much he didn't know.

"What else do I need to know?" Nick asked, knowing that the answer to this question could take hours, maybe days.

It could be years.

Jess took a deep breath. Four years and she still didn't seem prepared to talk about this.

"I found out I was pregnant with her three weeks before I left. I was about seven weeks along then," she began, bringing herself back to those last few weeks. "I knew I had to tell you before you figured it out. Cece knew something was up, but I kept my mouth shut."

"Why?" He prodded. "You used to tell me everything."

"We were fighting all the time," she countered nervously, "I was already emotional, not to mention scared out of my mind. That last argument, though… What you said… I couldn't let it go. You weren't ready for this, and I was going to give you time to be ready."

Deep down, Nick knew that she'd always had a bigger reason for leaving. Maybe he had just never wanted to admit that it was this big.

Jess continued. "It changed me. My life suddenly wasn't all about me anymore. I remember what her heartbeat sounded like, the first time I heard it, and that's what was in my head when I walked out the door. You have to understand, Nick, where we were going was no place to bring in a baby."

"Jess," Nick interrupted, not convinced, "how was I supposed to be ready for something I didn't even know was happening?"

"Look at you now," she motioned to him. "You own a bar. You have a stable relationship. You grew up."

This took Nick by surprise. He never told Jess about the bar.

"How did you…?"

"Cece filled me in," Jess replied with a wave of her hand. "She came over earlier to talk before I left. In fact, she was watching Aly when I was at the store last night, and when I was at dinner tonight."

"She was the one that called you," Nick affirmed, his original assumption confirmed.

"You could say that," Jess winced. "Aly has this thing with hazelnuts, and I haven't gotten to talk to the doctor about it yet. She's never eaten one, but lotions made with them make her skin break out in a rash. I told Cece about it, but I am careful to keep anything out of here that has it. She just freaked out tonight when Aly started saying her stomach hurt."

Her name is Allison Cora Day. She is allergic to hazelnuts. She has her mother's eyes, and my mouth. Nick was repeating this to himself, trying to hold in all of the information that Jess was giving him.

"In turn," Jess continued, "Aly got scared and began having a massive meltdown. All I heard on the phone was screaming, so I didn't think she'd just caught a stomach bug. She calmed down when I got here."

Nick shook his head, letting the pieces fit together. He pulled out his phone, finding the picture of Aly. He stared down at it for a while, keenly aware that Jess was looking over his shoulder.

"I was going to tell you tonight," Jess finally said.

"Why did you wait four years, Jess? I've missed so much…" Nick shook his head again, fighting back the urge to raise his voice. He'd gone almost an hour without getting mad at Jess, and for Aly's sake, he was trying to keep in down.

"I…" Jess sighed. "I had plans on having you come up to Portland before she was born. I didn't think it would ever be this long, Nick, you have to believe me. But I was working until the week before she came. I was suddenly faced with the fact that I could be a single mother, and I had to make enough to sustain us while I couldn't work."

"Being a single mother was your choice, Jess," Nick said, feeling the acid laced in his voice.

Jess's eyes fell to the floor. "I wasn't going to tell you over the phone. I knew leaving was a mistake as soon as I got to Portland. Cece called my mom a lot, and all my mom would tell her is that I was okay. She eventually just stopped calling. My parents, my dad especially, threatened to call you all the time. He was furious at me, because I didn't tell you. But he knew I was hurting, and I knew he wouldn't call you. You needed to hear it from me."

"That still doesn't explain the next three years," Nick shot back.

"Then let me finish," her eyes narrowed, their emotions balancing on edge. Nick obliged, shutting his mouth. "She was born on July 4th of that year."

Inadvertently, Nick smiled. Jess caught his eye, and some of the weight let up.

"She wasn't due until the 17th, but I've always said that she just wanted to see the fireworks. I'd been having false labor pains for some time, but that day was different. Mom asked me if we needed to call the doctor, and I was halfway to the car before she realized that I didn't want to call him, I wanted to go."

Jess smiled at the memory. Nick waited patiently, his full attention on the story.

"Thankfully, nothing happened until we got to the hospital, but my water broke as soon as I stepped out of the car," she chuckled darkly. "The next hour was a blur. I don't even remember getting into a hospital gown. I almost called you, but I couldn't think straight. I was given some stupidly weak pain meds, because I wasn't far enough along for the real drugs.

"Turns out, I was actually moving pretty fast. I got the epidural not twenty minutes before the doctor told me it was time, and even then, I still felt more than I should have."

Jess squeezed her eyes shut, tears forming in the corners, picturing everything she remembered next about that day. Nick put an arm around her, his heart leaping in his chest, hanging on her words.

Was it possible to be as nervous listening to the story as it was to actually go through it?

"She was gorgeous, Nick, just perfect," Jess whispered. Nick felt the corners of his eyes prickle, threatening a tear. "And when they finally gave her back to me, I asked for them to open the curtains on my window. We could see the fireworks. I told her that it was just for her."

Tears were streaming down Jess's face now, and the anger fled from Nick as he brushed a few tears on her cheek away with his fingers. He pulled her closer to him, trying to provide what little comfort he could, for both of them. What he would've given to be there…

Jess pulled away, and at first Nick thought it had something to do with the proximity of their bodies. However, it appeared that wasn't the case when Jess turned back around to produce a picture from her nightstand.

The picture nearly took the air out of his lungs.

Encircled by a pair of arms and the swaddling of a white hospital blanket, a tiny pink baby stared back at him. Her eyes were still newborn grey, with only a hint of the blue that they would become. A dusting of dark hair peeked out from a pink cap pulled over her head.

Nick had to agree with Jess – she was perfect.

He swiped his thumb over the glossy page, trying to place himself in that very room, being able to stroke her cheek and gently shush her crying like any real father should have.

Then, a more disturbing thought surfaced.

Had he known, would he have been there?

"I never planned on waiting this long," Jess admitted, drying her eyes and pulling Nick back into the present. "I thought I was prepared to handle a newborn, but I wasn't… Not at all. I was more tired than I had ever been in my life. The first six months, I was emotionally and physically drained. She was too little to bring to LA. And I knew that I had waited too long to ever justify calling you."

Nick nodded, numbly. There had been a period of time where he would've picked up the phone and done nothing but yell if Jess had ever called him.

"Before I knew it, she was a year old. She started trying to crawl. She babbled like she was trying to talk. Her first word was 'no.' When she was almost two, and my life had finally settled out, my dad got sick."

Nick hadn't known that. He held his breath, waiting for Jess to continue.

"His heart was in bad shape. He'd always had a heart murmur, but it was never that bad. We spent six months thinking he'd need a transplant, which he was unlikely to get with his age. I couldn't take Aly away from him like that. It was hard enough knowing that I could lose him; planning to leave just wasn't an option.

"So, a few months before she turned three, he had an experimental procedure done to fix it. My mom was scared for him. She came to wait with me while he was in surgery, though he doesn't remember and she'll never admit to it. It went well, thankfully, and we spent the summer getting him back to health.

"I started teaching in the fall, but I felt deep down that I had waited long enough. You needed to know. As early as it was, I knew I wouldn't hear back for a while. But in December, I picked Aly up from daycare and everything changed. She had the biggest frown on her face, and I had to keep from laughing in front of her teacher. She looked just like you, scowling at the world."

Nick grinned despite himself. He had a picture on his phone that gave him a pretty good idea of what she looked like right then.

"They'd been talking about Christmas, and doing family Christmas trees. When I took her home, Aly started telling me that her teacher tried to make her put something for her father on the tree, and she said she didn't have one. Her teacher was quick to correct her, but Aly was pretty insistent."

Nick winced, feeling the implications of those words in regard to his absence, but Jess was quick to resume. "I sat her down that night and told her that she did have a dad. I told her that he was out there, and that she'd get to meet him one day. She never thought that you didn't want her. It took a month for arrangements, and then another to get everything taken care of in Portland, but we made it here last week."

As Jess finished, Nick's mind wondered to what Aly thought of him after tonight. What did he look like to a three-year-old little girl? Just some guy named Nick in a plaid shirt and jeans? Did she even have a clue?

They sat in silence a few moments, Jess waiting for Nick to speak.

"Why didn't you tell her who I was back there?" Nick asked finally.

Jess bit her lip. "She's three, Nick. I don't want her to think any random stranger that comes to our door is a long-lost relative. I want to tell her soon, but I want you to get to know her first."

He nodded, swallowing hard. Kids had never been his forte. He'd find a way to screw this one up more than it already was, he just knew it.

Jess took his silence another way. "…that is, if you want to be in her life. I don't want to make you feel like you have to."

There was a split second where Nick considered this, and for the first time in his life, it was for someone other than himself. Would it just be best for Aly to not know about him? He was suddenly presented with an option that left him free to go on with life, and keep someone as innocent as his daughter out of the mess that he usually left behind.

The thought of life without her, though, seemed too painful to imagine.

"Of course I want to be in her life!" He replied, surprising himself at how passionate his words came. "Why would you give me that kind of option?"

"I know you didn't want kids," Jess shook her head, her eyes dark. "You need to know that you have a choice."

"I'm going to be in her life," he stated again, this time firmer. "Is there anything else I need to know? It's late, and you probably have work in the morning."

Jess nodded, glancing down at her phone. They'd been talking for a while, and it was approaching midnight. She sighed again, reaching for her purse.

"I was going to give these pictures to you tonight," she fished around until she pulled out a handful of glossy photos, the one on top a duplicate of the newborn one he'd already seen. She also handed him a CD case. "Those are some of the songs that I listen to with her. None of the kid stuff, but songs she goes to sleep to and songs that I played when she was a baby."

Nick took everything carefully, trying not to devour every picture right then. There was a mystery that clung to them… Something to look forward to. He didn't want to miss a single detail.

Then again, he didn't really want to leave, either.

He knew Jess was tired, so he got up, and as he walked to the door, tried to think of an appropriate goodbye.

He was failing miserably at that, going in to hug her, but remembering halfway in how he was supposed to hate human contact.

Jess responded just as awkwardly, but recovered with a chuckle.

"I guess we'll have plenty of time to figure that out."

Nick smiled tightly, then looked down at the objects in his hands. "I'm not really sure how this works. Do I just call you tomorrow night, and we can go from there?"

"Yeah," Jess replied, leaning in the doorway, "sleep on it, and we can figure out a plan tomorrow."

Nick turned to leave, mumbling his goodbye. Jess shut the door softly behind him, and as he walked to his car, he tried to process all the information he had been given tonight. His life was never going to be the same, and it terrified him, until he looked down at the picture he'd taken.

Getting into the car, he kept repeating to himself all that he had learned, in the hope that maybe it would finally sink in.

Her name is Allison Cora Day. She is allergic to hazelnuts. She has her mother's eyes, and my mouth. She was born on July 4th, just in time for the fireworks. Her first word was 'no.' She doesn't think that her father doesn't want her.

Her father's family and girlfriend don't know about her yet.

Nick gulped. He had a lot of phone calls to make, and a long talk with Julia waiting for him when he got home. To drown out the sound of his thoughts and worries, he put Jess's CD into the player and cranked up the volume.

It was time to get to know his daughter.

So I was really nervous about posting this one. There's still a lot more of this story to tell, and we all know that Nick and Jess really aren't the kind to get along for more than ten minutes at a time, haha. It's what makes the show so great!

Anyway, let me know what you thought - I'm always open to commentary. Until next time!