This chapter's ready a little earlier than I anticipated, but I think that's okay!

Oh, and I take no credit for any Disney fairy tales mentioned in this :] Though, it's probably my favorite princess story of them all!

Chapter 5

I want to shake this winter coat off my sleeve
Dust off a record and just be free
Oh, don't let me be lonely
No, don't let me be lonely

Nick had a nearly week before Aly was all clear. Six whole days.

The tension between him and Julia was palpable over his decision to follow Jess's lead, but towards the end of the week, they had settled into a routine of just avoiding the topic. It was hard, given how he had been calling Jess for updates at least twice a day, bringing her dinner another night. Jess even swore the last 72 hours were just to make sure that she wasn't contagious, and Julia had rolled her eyes when Nick had explained that to her, but he still didn't question Jess's judgment.

As long as Aly was alright, then he would do whatever it took.

Finally, when he left the bar early Sunday morning (because, as his luck would have it, someone called in on a busy night and he had to resort to bartending the closing shift), he knew he could go to bed knowing that he'd see Aly later that afternoon.

You can make it until noon.

He just repeated that, over and over, until he arrived home.

Julia was, understandably, asleep when he made it through the door. She had come by the bar earlier, but Saturday nights were usually busy, and his time couldn't be split as easily as it would on a weeknight.

He took his time getting ready for bed, unable to justify sleep when he was so jittery. His mind was still miles away from sleep when he crawled under the sheets.

Rolling over, Nick stared at the ceiling.

He'd had an entire week to reflect on what he'd seen in Jess that night. As unsettling as her newfound defense had been, he was even more concerned with how easily he had let himself lose it with Aly so close by. It scared him, how emotionally attached he was to a little girl that he barely knew.

To her, he must be a total stranger – just a guy who knew her mother. To him… What was she to him? He couldn't even put a thought together for what she meant to him – and he'd only met her once.

He'd been at the grocery store earlier in the week, while on the phone with Jess, and had absentmindedly thrown a new box of crayons in his basket. It hadn't even occurred to him that he'd gotten something for Aly until he was at the register.

Is it enough?

Is it too much?

There really wasn't any kind of guide to getting to know your own kid when she's closing in on four years old, let alone your first attempt at getting her something nice.

So, he'd stuck with the simple box of crayons, and held onto them all week.

As he lay awake, still too anxious to sleep, he pulled the little yellow box out of his nightstand, turning the object over and over in his hands. He didn't even know if she liked to color, but the pictures on her bedroom wall seemed to point him that way.

Is that how Jess decided on those kind of things?

He shook his head, putting the box back down. Five AM. Still four more hours until it was socially acceptable to be up. He pulled the sheets up, finally convincing his mind to calm down. Julia rolled in her sleep, and he let the smell of her damp hair fill his senses as he closed his eyes.

Morning came.

Or, rather, eleven AM did. In his bartending days, that would've been considered quite early. The period of time he'd been with Jess had been the only exception to that rule, mostly because if he didn't wake up, Jess had a habit of pouncing on him, just to share her distaste for being up for school. He'd learned to really enjoy it... Look forward to it, even.

Stop thinking like that.

Julia was up making coffee when Nick finally managed to convince his body to move. He shot out of bed as soon as he saw the crayons, still laying innocently on the nightstand, and got ready at lightening speed once he saw the time.

Julia had left a cup of coffee out for him when he approached the kitchen, keys in hand. He figured that today would be tough on her, and so he sat down at the table, if only to make something feel somewhat normal.

"You ready for this?" She asked, her lips forming into a thin line. There could have been a forced smile in there, but Nick didn't like it when she pretended to be happy for something that she clearly wasn't. He chose to ignore that, and focus on her question.

Closing his eyes, he pictured the sleeping face of his daughter.

"Yeah," he replied. "I think I am."

She nodded, folding up the newspaper and taking her empty cup to the sink. Nick finished his soon after, following suite. Before he left, though, he gave Julia a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I owe you a good date, don't I?" He asked, hinting a smile.

She chuckled, this time more sincere. "Probably."

He left with that, happy that they could hope to settle back to some kind of normalcy.

The feeling lasted all of five minutes once he was in the car. The anxiety took over the rest. His palms were sweating all the way over to her apartment, like he was sixteen years old again, going to meet a girlfriend's parents for the first time.

Or Jess's dad.

That had been pretty terrifying, too.

She could hate me.

Somehow, he made it to her door, and Jess opened it before he could knock this time.

Unlike a week ago, she offered more of a smile, though it was clear she was anxious as well. He held up the box of crayons, unsure of where to go with it. Jess raised an eyebrow, the grin almost coming to her eyes. "You plan on doing lots of coloring today?"

"Oh, uh, no…." He shook his head, "they're for – "

As he said the words, Aly bustled up behind Jess, two dark braids bouncing behind her yellow shirt. Her blue eyes found his, then flickered to the box in his hands.

" – Aly." He finished.

She broke into a grin at her name, reaching out for the box. Nick kneeled down to her level, taking all of her in, as her hands found the other side. For a split second, while they both had a hold of the box, he wanted to do nothing more than reach out and pull her close.

As foreign as it sounded to him, that's exactly what he wanted to do… yet it was the one thing he couldn't do.

Not yet. Be patient.

She clutched the box to her chest, clearly eager to turn around and get to work with them.

"What do you say, Aly?" Jess reminded her.

"Thank you, Nick!" she recited, looking up for her mother's approval. Jess nodded, and Aly scrambled back inside, leaving Nick kneeling in front of Jess, in complete awe.

"Sorry about that," Jess said, helping Nick to his feet. "She's been all over the place this morning."

"No, no," Nick objected, walking inside. "She's really something."

"Yeah, she's something alright," Jess muttered, saying something under her breath that sounded like 'Just wait until it happens at five AM.' She then turned and looked mischievously at Nick.

He knew the look – and remembered all-too-well the foreboding dip in the pit of his stomach that came with it.

He was in for something.

"Hey Aly!" Jess called back into the apartment, the smirk still playing at her lips. "Nick wants you to show him your room!"

Her head poked out of the doorway to her room, a shy smile crossing her features. She approached Nick slower this time. Jess nudged him forward, and as soon as he took that first step, Aly's small hand found his, and he was suddenly being pulled away, a force that had just as much of an effect on his mind than on his heart.

Aly didn't warm up to him immediately – no, it took an hour or so. Jess had done most of the talking at first, telling her what to show Nick, and all he had to do was nod.

But once she realized she had found a listener in Nick, there was nothing he could do to stop her little chatter.

Jess seemed quite pleased with herself.

Nick and Aly now sat on the floor in her room, next to a tub full of stuffed animals and dolls. She'd started with the pictures on her walls – the subjects ranging from neighborhood cats (she had her mother's genetics, after all) to the old preschool music teacher that she apparently thought was a bear. Who knew?

After the pictures came the dolls. She didn't have as many as he originally suspected, and they were already onto their last few subjects.

"This is Elvis," she said, handing him a stuffed purple bear. He took it carefully, his fingers brushing the soft, worn fur on its back. It was clear this one had been taken on quite a few adventures.

"Elvis, huh?" he responded, his eyes flickering to Jess, leaning up against the doorframe. Jess covered her mouth to conceal a chuckle.

Aly nodded quickly, "Uh-huh. I made it."

"You made it?" Nick asked, pretty impressed if Aly wasn't embellishing (turns out she was also a lot like her mother with that).

She beamed. "Yup!"

"Aly," Jess interjected, hiding another smile, "what did we talk about telling the whole truth?"

Aly frowned at her mother. "I stuffed him."

"Still," Nick insisted, squishing the bear in his hands, "that's great, uh, kiddo!"

Kiddo?

Really? That's the best you can do?

Jess snickered, but Aly didn't catch on and it didn't seem to bother her. She continued babbling about her friend Bailey, whose birthday party was the event that got her the bear. She named him Elvis, because she'd asked Jess for a name. Bailey apparently thought the name Purple wasn't cool.

"I think Purple would've been just fine," Nick defended, feeling more animosity than a grown man should towards a kid that his daughter had briefly known.

Before Aly could come up with an answer, a knock came at the door, and Jess left to go answer it. Aly trotted curiously out of her room, and Nick followed. The way they craned their necks around the corner was so similar, it almost threw Nick off balance.

"Aunt Cece!" Aly called when their model friend entered behind Jess. Cece bent down, letting Aly run into her arms.

"Hi sweetie," she replied, letting Aly go. "What have you been up to today?"

"I was showing Nick my room!" Aly chirped, pointing towards Nick. Cece's eyebrows shot up when she realized Nick was there, glancing between him and Jess. The toddler didn't take notice, and continued anyway. "I was 'bout to color."

"Oh!" Cece nodded, watching Aly pull out a coloring book and her new box of crayons, "I actually can't stay long today. Schmidt and I have… something later. Jess," she looked up, "I accidently left with this last week... I think Aly left it in my purse. I keep forgetting to bring it back over."

She handed Jess a DVD case, and Jess laughed. "Yeah, she would've been missing this soon. It's not a real Friday night until this is in the DVD player."

Nick caught a glimpse at the cover before Aly pulled him over to the table.

Tangled.

He'd never heard of the movie. Julia wasn't much for movies to begin with, let alone one that would peak the interest of a three-year-old.

As Aly set up the crayons and paper, he tried to catch snippets of Jess and Cece's conversation, but was futile. Aly was very proud of her coloring books, and one of the more worn covers matched the cover of the movie that Jess still held in her hands.

"This is my fave-rit." Aly explained. Nick smiled at her, letting a warmth settle in his stomach while watching as she flipped through the pages of already scribbled artwork. She settled on a page that still had a few pale spots.

Suddenly, though, she put down her crayons and pushed off of her chair. Curiously, Nick watched her walk to her mother, and pull on the edge of her skirt for her attention. Jess looked down, and Aly said something quietly.

Scooping up her daughter, Jess walked off, leaving Nick and Cece alone for the time being. Nick gave Cece and puzzled look, and Cece laughed.

"Bathroom," she explained, approaching Nick casually. "Just because there's no diapers doesn't mean that they can hold it for very long. All the parenting books say…"

He tuned her out, focusing on a familiar, almost unsettling, look in her eyes.

Nick blinked. The bathroom was one thing, but there was something about Cece's presence that also concerned him.

"What are you doing, Cece?"

She glanced back at the door, a longing look in her eyes. They stood there in silence, before Cece came back to meet his stare.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Nick," she grumbled, too late to be any kind of convincing.

"Yes you do," he rolled his eyes. "You and Schmidt want kids, I know, and you can't act like I haven't seen what these kind of things do to you."

Her eyes narrowed, trying so hard to cover up, but she didn't speak.

Schmidt and Cece had been trying for two years to have kids of their own. Nick had been privy to their fair share of ups and downs, false alarms and missed steps. He thought maybe they had gotten over it – settled for who they are. The second Cece had hugged Aly close, though, he realized what she was doing. She was trying to fill a void that wasn't Aly's to fill.

Did Jess know what it could do to Cece?

Finally, Cece inhaled, pulling together her defense. A toilet flushing in the other room gave her a time limit to speak. "Look, Nick," she whispered quickly. "I know that you're doing this because you think that Schmidt and I knew something about her, but I swear that we didn't. Jess needed help, and she called me first this time. I at least tried to find her when she left, instead of just shutting down like you."

Nick should've corrected her at her attempt to change the subject. He should've said that he wasn't angry over that – not anymore – but the honesty in her words stung. Maybe he had been mad at first. He avoided her gaze, just so he wouldn't have to face those emotions again.

"Sorry," he started, fidgeting with the edge of the coloring book. "I just… You know… It's…" He stammered. Cece nodded, but offered him a weak smile.

"Schmidt and I are meeting with an adoption specialist in an hour," she admitted. Nick felt his eyes go wide. Jess entered the room right as Cece put a finger to her lips.

So Jess doesn't know.

Jess glanced between the two of them, confused at the shift in their mood. Aly pulled herself back into her chair, and handed Nick a crayon. Nick shook his head at Jess, trying to assure her it was nothing, but it didn't stop Jess from following Cece out. Nick couldn't hear the conversation fully after that, but got snippets of "You sure?" and "Don't worry about it."

"Nick!" Aly exclaimed, pulling his attention back to the page in her book. "It's you!"

She was pointing to her most recent work of art, a finger hovering directly over some cartoonish figure.

And he laughed.

Underneath the scribbles was the outline of a character bearing large eyes and almost ridiculously tousled hair, with brown crayon smeared over most of it. Next to the character, untouched by the hand of his daughter, was the form of what he assumed was the princess, her long hair spilling across the outline of the page. If he had thought the prince's eyes were big, the princess's had to be twice that size.

"Me, huh?" he chuckled. She tore out the page, handing it to him.

"You finish it," She replied firmly, handing him a crayon.

"Well," he responded, "what color is her dress supposed to be?"

Aly shook her head quickly. "No, she's your princess."

"My princess?" Nick pointed the crayon at his chest. Aly giggled.

"Yeah!" she nodded. Nick considered this, picking up a pale green crayon and started to fill in the edges of her dress. No pinks and purples for him, not at all, even though there were plenty of scribbles in those colors around the outline of his character's boots.

Nevertheless, this was his princess, and if Aly wanted him to color it, then by all means, he'd color it.

Julia had gone to pick up dinner by the time he arrived home that night, more tired than he was used to being on a Sunday. Aly had kept him busy between activities, and his princess was never actually colored completely.

He'd finished most of her dress, and had gotten a nod of approval out of his daughter while they'd settled down to watch some cartoon about a dog. The stupid credits song would probably be stuck in his head for the rest of the week.

Jess had then offered to make him dinner, but he figured that he should not push his limits with Julia, and left.

It had been harder than he expected, leaving her there to go home to an empty place. Well, maybe not empty, but it was certainly without the appeal that Aly held. On top of that, it wasn't exactly a grandiose or emotional goodbye, but he realized that he shouldn't have expected that much on his very first visit.

He had kept the picture of him and his princess, though, and had placed in a special spot on his nightstand. Maybe one day he'd get around to finishing it. But for now, it was perfect the way it was.

I've been amazed at the response to this story - and I'd like to thank each and every one of you who have taken the time to leave a comment. I hope to get better at replying to all of them, but for those that I have missed, I really do appreciate it.

I'm pretty excited about the next few chapters... I hope everyone else is, too!