...How about that college football scoreboard this weekend? Crazy, I tell you.

Definitely bittersweet to get to this point - and I would like to thank a second to thank EVERYONE for their tremendous support over this story. It's been a great ride, and I can't believe that when I posted this in June, I was just hoping to get a few people who were willing to critique it.

This story wouldn't be half of what it is without the wonderful help of Newgirl78. She is far and away the best beta that I have ever worked with, and she's a pretty amazing writer. Cannot thank her enough!

So, here we go... The last one! Enjoy! (virtual cookies to whoever gets what New Girl episode a certain boy's name is referenced in)

Epilogue - Twelve Years Later

"Allison Miller!"

The words flew out of his mouth in the most parental fashion that Nick Miller could muster. A few faces on the sidewalk gave him a sideways glance, along with some on the nearby beach, but otherwise ignored his calling. The late-afternoon sun beat down on the back of his neck and he shaded his eyes as he glanced around the boardwalk.

None of them were faces he was looking for, though, so he continued on.

How big could this beach be, anyway?

There was a time when he would've looked at parents doing the exact same thing with a shake of his head, hugging his well-behaved little girl close. Always conscious of getting in trouble, Aly was never the one to be late or otherwise devious. However, that all had changed as of late, in what appeared to be her attempts at being a teenager.

"She's around here somewhere."

A delicate hand fell upon his shoulder, and bright blue eyes found his as he turned around. Twelve years together, and those eyes still had a way of turning his willpower to putty.

"I have a feeling she's ignoring me," he complained.

His wife only smiled. "Maybe she forgot that's her name again?"

"That has been her name for nearly three times as long as Allison Day was," he rolled his eyes. Though, it was hard to fight the smile at the memory.

When his four-year-old had discovered that her mother's name would change upon marriage, she had decided that she was not going to be the odd one out. Her forwardness had been so cute at the time.

Now, as a teenager, it had a tendency to be downright irritating.

It had taken the better part of a year to make her new name official, but it did change, and Allison Miller was legally her name. Last week, however, she had pulled a similar disappearing act at the mall and in a moment of 'caught-off-guard' excuse generating, had decided that forgetting her last name had changed was a good one.

It probably had something to do with the fact that she was both a teenager and the child of the worst liar on the planet.

"Nick, she is sixteen years old today," Jess replied, her hand finding his. "She doesn't have to meet us, you know."

Sixteen.

There was no way his little Aly was sixteen.

"Jess, this has been a family thing since you guys came back," he sighed, setting the beach bag down on an empty patch of sand. "Just a little hard to give up."

"I know," Jess answered simply, spreading a few towels out and pulling Nick down with her when she was done. He dropped their cooler in the center to hold the towels down. "But it's her birthday, and – "

"Aly!"

Just as Jess was finishing, Nick spotted a familiar bundle of curls, bouncing down the beach in…

Well, then.

What in the world was she wearing?

The girl turned around, where blue eyes met brown, and she instantly ducked behind her friend. He could see her adjust her sunglasses from behind the other girl, and Nick had half a mind to go snatch her up before anyone else saw her in that.

"Don't embarrass her, Nick," Jess warned, placing a hand on his arm.

"You can't seriously be okay with this!" Nick pulled against her, watching their daughter reluctantly trudge to them, a towel now wrapped around her body.

She was taller than Jess, but only by an inch or so. She had grown out of the baby face and chubby limbs, which had been replaced with the slim figure of her mother after a few years as an awkward preteen. As she got older, though, Nick saw a lot of himself in her face.

Especially now, as her glare borderlined a turtle-face.

"I told you I'd call when we were done playing volleyball," she began, throwing an arm out for more dramatic effect. "You don't have to call me out in front of the whole beach!"

"You sure looked done to me," Nick commented, eying the group she was with, while Jess elbowed him. "And who exactly gave you permission to wear that swimsuit? You may be sixteen, but you're not old enough for that."

She stiffened, hugging her towel close. He could still see ties for the top tied around her neck, his eyes narrowing. After a moment, though, Aly looked at Jess (who had remained remarkably quiet), then back at Nick.

"Mom told me it looked fine."

Nick snapped his head over to his wife, a sheepish smile playing at her lips. "It looks cute, Nick. Teal is a nice color on her."

"That's asking every boy on the beach to look her way!" He gaped.

"It's not that bad!" Aly defended, still clutching tightly to her towel.

"Is the strap three fingers thick?"

"That's a stupid rule!"

Nick looked at Jess for some guidance, but she only shrugged. "It is kind of impossible to find swimsuits with a strap like that."

He buried his head in his hands, defeated. When he pictured it again, he knew that it could be worse. There were no string-y strings involved, and he had to be thankful for that. Grumbling, he looked up to find Aly's gaze.

"Fine, go have fun," he muttered. Aly, however, just stood there, biting her lip. Nick shook his head. "Are you going to give me time to change my mind?"

Her eyes widened, flickering between her parents. Jess laughed.

"I wouldn't test his patience."

Finally, Aly broke into a wide grin and threw her arms around Nick's neck.

"I promise I'll be careful!" She ensured, hugging him closer. He reciprocated, taking in the salty scent that lingered in her hair. The days with hugs like this were numbered… and he couldn't let a single one escape him.

The moment ended entirely too quickly, and she pulled away with another grin. Jess handed her a bottle of water, and Nick watched as mother and daughter shared a quick, but knowing, smile.

Somehow, he knew that Jess had assured Aly that he would concede to her choice of swimwear.

She knew him entirely too well.

"No funny business!" He called as Aly started to run off, and she turned only to check and make sure none of her friends were close by.

"Dad!" She shook her head, and continued to track down the beach to a group of teenagers. He recognized the light hair and lanky figure of one of those waiting and he groaned.

"Noah will keep her in line," Jess assured, running a hand down his arm. "He's always been the voice of reason."

"He's one of the one's I'm concerned about as of late," his eyes narrowed again as the group walked out of sight. Aly's closest friend had been oddly formal to him lately, and Nick knew that there were very, very few things that it could mean.

"You worry too much," Jess chuckled and kissed him on the cheek. Nick tried to respond, but Jess stood up abruptly and ran off somewhere behind him. He assumed she'd seen a student's family or something, and Nick tried to avoid those kind of situations as much as he could.

"Guess I'm gonna end up alone tonight," he grumbled, grabbing a handful of sand.

"No, you won't!"

A solid body knocked into his side, throwing him slightly off balance, and Nick felt a small smile tug at his lips.

"Oh, I guess you're here to change that, huh, Mason?" He raised an eyebrow to stare back into another pair of brown eyes.

The boy snickered. "Yup, Dad!"

"So how was practice?" He asked, and Mason launched into his personal form of ten-year-old storytelling. He was usually better at listening in, but over the years, Nick's attention span had waned, and he had all but given up on trying to learn soccer lingo. It just didn't seem like it was meant for him to understand it. Not to mention, Jess had always been the better listener.

Nick glanced at the soccer ball tucked beneath Mason's arm, then craned his neck to stare in the direction Jess had run off to. Closer to the water, he caught Schmidt and Cece's setup. They usually went all out for these kind of things – the umbrella, beach chairs and the tanning oil.

There was a point in time where Nick would've prided himself with having the best alcohol, but he'd had to clean up some stuff in recent years to set a good example for a certain blue-eyed teenager. It was a difficult feat, considering his income came from the one thing that he was trying to keep Aly (and eventually Mason) away from as long as possible.

Nick's eyes flickered back to his wife.

Jess was still over by Schmidt and Cece, chatting happily with her oldest friend. Schmidt caught Nick's eye and sent him a knowing smile. Nick nodded in response as Schmidt put his arm around a tan fourteen-year-old, still dressed in her soccer uniform. Mason usually got rides from Schmidt and Cece on days when he or Jess couldn't make it, and they did likewise with Eden, Cece and Schmidt's daughter.

She wasn't their biological daughter, but nobody ever knew. Schmidt had never seemed to care, anyway. In every way but blood, she was Cece and Schmidt's. Their families did a lot together – as they had been through a lot together – but the Fourth of July was a holiday usually reserved for family time on both sides.

The Fourth had little significance to Cece and Schmidt, but they needed their alone time, too. Twelve years ago, they'd gotten a call on Thanksgiving about a foster child in desperate need of placement. The social worker didn't want the little girl to get stuck in the system, because she was at a delicate age where most couples would turn her away because she wasn't a baby.

They'd agreed to take her conditionally, as they were in no way prepared to take on a girl that was nearly two. Eden, however, fell asleep in Schmidt's arms her very first night there, and the rest was history.

"… and I scored, can you believe… DAD!"

A hand waved in front of his face. He turned back to see Mason frowning at him.

"Are you not listening again?"

Nick smiled sheepishly, seeing Jess approach out of the corner of his eye. "What can I say, your mother is so gorgeous, I can't focus sometimes."

Mason snorted. "Gross, Dad. Ew."

"What about me?" Jess asked, taking a seat on Mason's other side. "Is your father trying to suck up again?"

"Is it working?" Nick asked, his voice low.

Jess leaned over Mason's head and pressed her lips to Nick's. He responded with gentle pressure, knowing that the older he (and his kids) got, the less appropriate it was to fully respond like he wanted to in public.

"Ughh!" Mason groaned, falling back onto the towels and covering his eyes with his hands.

"One day," Nick murmured, his face still inches from Jess's, "you'll understand why I do this."

"Doubtful," Mason replied, and Jess gave Nick one last longing look before turning to help her son up. He looked at her skeptically as she pulled on his shoulders, muttering something along the lines of "only if you guys are done."

The sun was starting to set, and Nick took a sip from his ever-so disappointing soda. Jess had her arm around Mason, and was humming a tune that Nick couldn't quite make out. He took another drink, putting on a sour face when he knew Jess was looking.

"Oh!" She replied with a laugh, reaching for the cooler, "Schmidt brought something for you and I completely forgot to give it to you."

She dug around in the ice, then pulled out a plastic bottle filled with more soda. The label was torn off, and clearly opened, giving Nick the urge to make a face. She handed it to him and he gave her another questioning look as his fingers curled around the sides.

"Just trust him," Jess laughed into his ear.

Nick unscrewed the cap, keenly aware of Mason's curious eyes on him. He took a hesitant sip, as there was a time where he would never have trusted Schmidt to make him a mysterious drink, and was pleasantly surprised.

Oh.

Rum and Coke.

Classic.

He chuckled and sent another glance Schmidt's way. As if on cue, Schmidt turned just in time. Nick tipped the bottle towards his friend, and Schmidt responded with a laugh.

"Is that Schmidt Juice?"

Nick's head shot around to Mason, looking as innocent as his question was probably supposed to sound. However, Nick snorted so hard, he felt the unpleasant sensation of fizz and alcohol shoot up his nose. Jess didn't even bother to contain her giggles.

"What did you just call it?" Nick sputtered.

"Schmidt Juice," Mason confirmed, apparently proud for remembering. "He said he was gonna give you some of his special juice when we were in the car."

Leave it to Schmidt to give his ten-year-old a phrase that could be taken in many different ways. It was even more suspicious considering that the source was Schmidt.

"I'm going to need more of this stuff if you're going to keep saying that," Nick groaned, leaning up against the cooler. Mason hardly had enough time to get a word out before Nick spotted a familiar body running towards them. Her sundress bounced shadows across the sand, and for the first time, Nick noticed how much more populated the beach had gotten in the past thirty minutes.

"Well, look who it is," Nick commented, his voice dripping sarcasm. "To what do we owe this honor?"

She plopped down right next to him. "Very funny, Dad."

"I mean, you've been sixteen not even a day and you act like we don't even exist…"

"Aly's not quite sixteen yet," Jess winked, settling in next to Mason. He smiled at his sister, and she responded likewise. They'd been so concerned when Mason was born that the age difference would be too big, but it seemed to work for them. Aly was a pretty jealous type, not unlike Nick, and when Mason came along, Nick was glad she was old enough to at least understand why they weren't going to be giving her all the attention.

"Actually, Mom," Aly quipped, interrupting Nick's thoughts, "My driver's license says – "

"It's still a learner's permit until the DMV opens tomorrow," Nick defended. Aly glared at him. There were many perks of having a birthday on a national holiday - like having both parents always off of work - though this was not one of them.

"Gee, thanks for raining on my parade."

"Anytime," he smiled innocently. Mason giggled from Nick's other side, clearly enjoying the teasing his sister was getting. "But I am glad you made it back in time."

This time, he got a genuine smile out of her. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Shhhh!" Jess commanded, just as all eyes on the beach began to look up into the darkness. A high-pitched whine followed a tiny little streak in the sky, until reaching the very top of their few. The flare let off its glow and expanded into a burst of colors.

The resounding pop sent a chorus of oohs and ahs through the crowd gathered on the beach. Mason gleefully pointed up as more flashes went off, this time with glittering trails that lingered on the horizon. He tugged at Nick's sleeve in various intervals, and Nick nodded dutifully.

Jess and Aly, however, remained quiet.

He knew Jess was miles away. As she stared up at the fireworks, he knew that her mind was back to that very day sixteen years ago. Whatever pain, whatever sacrifices that she had made to get there always lingered when Aly's birthday came around.

At first, Nick had longed to share that memory with her. Aly's birthday always came with a mixed bag of emotions, for both of them. But, as the years progressed, as they really learned how to raise a child together – especially after Mason was born – he started to realize that there were no guarantees that there would've been a happy ending had Jess stayed that night.

Their fights were still epic. They were still too stubborn for their own good. They still got on each other's last nerve. There were periods of time where he thought his head would explode from frustration.

But, despite everything, they were still Nick and Jess, and they would always be in a state of learning how to deal with each other. Even after a span of over sixteen years.

Jess caught his gaze and he could spot the gleam of a tear forming in the corners of her eyes. Nick reached behind Mason and covered Jess's hand with his own. Her smooth skin was a welcome contrast to the scratchy sand around it.

The fireworks illuminated her face as they went off and cast dark shadows in their absence. Nick smiled at her knowingly.

The show continued on for a few more minutes, before the grand finale surely illuminated the skies for miles around. Nick closed his eyes as he knew the last ones were going off, trying to hold onto the moment for as long as he could.

Life had been entirely too kind to him, and he'd started to realize that more and more over the past few years.

Before he could get much into that thought, though, Jess got up and pulled her purse out from behind the cooler. Nick smiled as he watched her pull out a neatly wrapped box from the outside pocket.

She knelt down in front of Aly, holding the box out in front of her.

"Happy birthday, Allison," she whispered.

Aly's eyes went wide, gingerly taking the box from her mom. Her eyes flickered between Nick and Jess, evidently surprised.

"I thought you said that the car was enough to be my only – "

"Well, we lied," Nick laughed, but Aly still looked disbelieving. "Seriously, open it."

She pulled the ribbon off the top and pulled at the tape on the wrapping paper, so much like Jess opened presents. Christmas morning was always interesting at their house, as he and Mason were more of the types to just rip everything open.

Once she had coaxed the paper off, she pulled the top off of the little box. She gasped.

"Mom… It's so pretty…"

She pulled out the pendant, the moonlight catching the smooth edges of the silver. It was shaped a butterfly, dangling carefully from one wing. It wasn't an intricate design. In fact, when Jess had pointed it out, Nick had thought it was beautiful in it's simplicity. It was like someone had taken a single brushstroke to draw the butterfly, and then it was put into silver.

Jess helped Aly get the chain around her neck, and before Aly could look down to see how it looked, she pulled her mother into a tight hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squealed. "I love it!"

"Don't just thank me, you're father helped," Jess replied, hugging her just a little tighter.

Aly let go and leaned over to Nick. He opened his arms and she fell into them.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," he whispered.

"Thank you, Daddy," she breathed into his shoulder. He held her close again, amazed. Two hugs in one day? Good stuff.

"Hey!" Nick heard Mason yell from behind them. "I helped too!"

Aly pulled away, smirking back at Nick, then her attention turned to her little brother. "Oh you did, did you?"

"Duh," Mason drawled, starting into another story, and Aly stood up to follow him as he inched away. Jess an Aly exchanged glances, in what Nick could only assume was a female-only conversation that consisted of 'meet back at the car?' kind of things.

He watched his kids walk away, Mason's story keeping Aly laughing until they disappeared into the crowd leaving the beach.

Nick began rolling up towels, stuffing them back into the beach bag in an effort that Jess chose not to watch. He never knew how women could get so many things to fit into such small bags, and it tended to annoy Jess when he didn't even bother to attempt to figure it out.

Once he was done, though, he stood up and felt her delicate hand slip into his.

"We've had a good run, haven't we?" She commented as they started back to the car.

He chuckled. "Well, that's one way to sound ominous, I'll give you that."

"Not what I meant!" Jess laughed, the sparkle still clear in her eyes, even in the dark. "It's just… This whole thing turned out better than I ever imagined."

Nick knew the warmth he felt surround him wasn't from the California summer anymore.

"It has," he agreed, squeezing her hand. "And I've loved every minute of it. Including you."

"If you're trying to tell me that you love me," Jess smirked, "then I love you, too."

Nick stopped then, pulling Jess back from the crowd. She gave him a look, but didn't resist. He put down the beach bag on the sand and took the cooler from her grasp.

"How's this?" He asked, pulling her close to him, kissing her lightly on the cheek before moving his lips to her ear. "I love you, Jessica."

He could hear the smile in her voice. "That was fantastic," she replied, matter-of-factly. Nick chuckled, then shifted again to face her. His had found the back of her head, and he pulled her forward as he lowered his lips to hers.

She responded just as eagerly, reveling in their first moment alone all day. Her arms wound around his neck, and Nick's hand found her waist. Two kids later, and they still had an insatiable desire to be all over each other.

Their lips moved together, an art perfected over the twelve years that they had been married (and a lot before that, too). There was a great sense of fulfillment in it.

Jess eventually did pull away, always the responsible one. They did have two kids that would (hopefully) be waiting for them at the car.

They were silent as they picked up the rest of their beach gear and started toward the car. Nick found Jess's hand again, though, and she started humming a tried-and-true song as walked.

Nick chose not to join in this time, if for nothing else than to really appreciate the words that floated in his head at each note. There had been a lot of times that Nick had felt truly alone in his life, but those moments had become quite scarce over the past thirteen years.

As he spotted his kids leaning up against the car, play-fighting like siblings so often did, he gave Jess's hand one last squeeze.

Being lonely wasn't something he ever really had to worry about… At all.

Not anymore.

So don't let me be, let me be, let me be lonely tonight
While we're young and alive
Take the keys to my car and the keys to my heart and just drive
Oh don't let me, let me be lonely
Don't let me be lonely
Don't… Don't let me be lonely

No, don't let me be
Oh, lonely

The End