Ness as Parents- New Girl Fanfiction

Desert Expedition

"Bzzztt." Nick reaches for his phone from the nightstand. He's sitting on the bed with Jess, and Reggie and Frances are snuggled between them. He sees a text from the "Dumbest Boys in School" group chat, and opens it. Schmidt sent a selfie of him doing laundry and holding the cap of the soap bottle. He has a cheesy smile, and is pointing to the fact that the soap is exactly at the line. Underneath the photo there's a text saying "It's perfectly at the line 🤪🥳😎". Nick grins, and then gets another text, this time from Winston. It's a picture of Winston smiling, and measuring his smile with a ruler. It's followed by a text saying, "My smile is exactly 3.8 inches". Nick laughs, remembering that night, and starts to hum I Want To Know What Love Is. Nick scoots closer to Frances, who is showing Jess and Reggie how to make a crocodile shadow puppet. He holds the phone out and takes a selfie of him with an arm around Frances, and Jess hugging Reggie.
   "What's that for?" Jess asks curiously, and Nick just grins. He sends it to Schmidt and Winston, texting, "I learned how to love."
   "Whatever," Jess says with a giggle. "Are you excited for our trip?"
   "Yep! I rented the moving truck, just like before," Nick responds.
   "Wait what? Why did you get a moving truck for our trip to the desert??" Jess looks at nick quizzically.
   "So then it would be like it was? Isn't that what you wanted?"
   "Well, yes, but we had the truck because you were actually moving, what are we going to use it for now?" Jess rolls her eyes at Nick, but then shrugs her shoulders. "You know what? It's fine, we can just use it for extra seating, and we can put some chairs and food in there." Jess decides with a laugh.
   "Good plan, what kind of food are we bringing?" Nick asks, while admiring Frances' shadow puppets.
   "Beer of course, apple juice for the kids, meat sticks, sandwiches, dried fruit, trail mix..." Jess trails off, pretty sure Nick got the gist of it.
   "And I'm bringing my cassette tapes!" Nick exclaims, and Jess groans theatrically.
   "Did you know daddy has a cassette tape with some pretty awesome songs sung by yours truly, when I was fourteen?" Nick asks Reginald and Frances.
   "What's a cassette tape?" Reggie asks, and Nick sighs.
   "Whatever, but get ready to be blown away." Nick says defiantly, and Jess laughs.
                          ***
   Jess turns onto the freeway, glancing at Reggie and Frances in the back seat.
   "Why isn't daddy in the car with us?" Frances asks.
   "Him, Uncle Schmidt, and Uncle Winston are driving a truck there with some of our supplies." Jess tells her, eyes on the road.
   "Why?" Frances asks again.
   "I honestly couldn't tell you," Jess laughs.
   A few miles away, Cece is driving Ruth and Jacob. Ruth is listening to music on her phone, and Jacob is pestering Cece.
   "Did you know the capital of Thailand is Bangkok?"
   "No, Jacob, I didn't know that." Cece replies, exasperated. She checks their ETA and groans when it says 43 minutes until arrival.
   Only 37 minutes away, Aly is in their minivan with Dan Bill, Malachi, Charles, Ava, and Lucas. Malachi and Charles are arguing over who would win in a fight; Hulk or Superman. Lucas is attempting to pull on Ava's pigtail, and she's screaming at him.
   "Does anyone want a mint? I found one in my purse," Aly asks, desperately trying to stop the fighting. Dan Bill and Charles exclaim they want it, then glare at each other. Aly throws it to the backseat without turning around, and the boys scramble for it.
   "Why did Winston have to go in the stupid move in truck, no one is even moving." Aly mumbles to herself, exhausted.
                          ***
   When everyone finally arrives at the desert, they set up the truck and the chairs. Nick passes out beer and apple juice, and sits down in a plastic chair.
   "No one is throwing their keys this time, right?" Winston clarifies anxiously. "I'm still haunted by that night."
   "Oh, when the werewolves got you?" Schmidt teases.
   "I spent the night alone in the desert! I feared for my life!" Winston exclaims, glaring at Schmidt.
   "Well, me and Jess fought off a coyote," Nick brags, putting an arm around Jess.
   "Really?!" Reginald asks, intrigued.
  "I wouldn't stay we 'fought it off' but I did scare it away with my roadrunner knowledge." Jess laughs.
   "Huh?" Reggie looks at her with confusion.
   "...I pretended I was a coyote and yelled 'meep meep ayayayayayaya' at it until it ran away." Jess finally explains sheepishly, and Nick grins.
   "She was so brave," Nick winks at Jess. They share a glance, remembering that night and the things that were said.
   "I was fine. You know why? Because of her," Nick concludes, not necessarily talking about the coyote anymore.
   "Imagine if you actually moved out," Cece murmurs, then looks at Jess. Everyone goes silent, thinking about the notion.
   Nick awkwardly fidgets with a bottle of beer. "I came back though," he states, looking at the ground.
   "What did make you come back?" Winston asks Nick.
   Nick clears his throat, and makes eye contact with Jess, smiling softly. "Ya know, after that night, I realized our story wasn't over, it was only beginning."
   "What story?" Schmidt asks.
   "Our story! Like all of us... and especially me and Jess." Nick admits.
   "Aha! So you came back because of Jess!" Cece declares, triumphant. Nick blushes and looks back at the ground, but then turns to Jess and smiles. She smiles back at him, squeezing his hand gently. But soon enough, their moment is interrupted by Frances tugging on Jess' pant leg, whining.
   "Reggie stole my sam-wich." She complains, pointing to where Reggie is standing, holding an sandwich in each hand. Jess groans and goes over to him, and Nick gets his cassette tape from the truck.
   "This next song goes out to a very special girl, Gwen Bressler!' Nick's prepubescent voice starts to play. "I know you like breakfast, but what do you feel about..."
   "... Breakfast at Tiffany's?" Nick chimes in, standing up. Jess laughs and gets Reggie and Frances to stand up too.
   "And I said 'What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?' Something, something, da da-ta da-ta!" Nick belts, shaking his body in a way that could be categorized as dance, but barely.
   "Gwen, you don't even know my name, do you? How bizarre," the cassette plays, transitioning into the next song.
   "Reggie, this is when I got cool again," Nick brags, and Ruth rolls her eyes.
   "Sure, Mr. Diarrhea Head." She scoffs.
   "Not even you could disrupt the groove I've got going on right now," Nick retaliates, high fiving Reggie. Jess pumps her fist, and picks up Frances, twirling her around. Ruth and Schmidt shake their butts and laugh, and Cece groans but soon joins them, pulling Jacob up with her. Aly and Winston do some sort of absurd disco moves with Dan Bill, Charles and Malachi, while Ava and Lucas roll around near by. Soon, the sun starts to fall beneath the horizon off the golden sand, submerging them in dark blue shadows.
   "Well Nick, I gotta say fourteen year old you was pretty cool, he had pipes." Winston laughs, and Nick sticks out his tongue at him.
   "Jess is also quite a performer though, remember when you were Elvis at the funeral?" Nick prods Jess, and she laughs, but then immediately gets into position, imitating Elvis' signature pose.
   "Ok, guess we're doing this now," Schmidt says, and starts to play In the Ghetto.
   "As the snow fliiiies, on a cold and grey Chicagoooo." Jess sings in a low voice, and Nick smiles softly at the memory.
   "A poor little baby child was bornn. In the ghettoooooo." Jess does a little kick, and pretends she's holding a microphone.
   "In the ghettoooo." She sings higher, and everyone joins in.
   "In the ghettoooooo."
   "Alright, I'm done now," Jess laughs, and sits back down in a chair.
   "I'm glad we did this, it was really fun," Nick looks around and smiles at everyone. "I know I'm not usually a sappy speech kind of guy, but you guys mean so much to me. I know we've all been through a lot..." he pauses and glances at Jess. "... but we've grown so much, and I'm the happiest I've ever been, because of all of you." He puts an arm around Jess, who has Frances on her lap, and scruffs Reggie's hair. Schmidt smiles back, and looks at Cece, Ruth and Jacob. Winston softly kisses Aly, and Dan Bill groans.
   "Well, I love you guys too, but what you and Jess went through didn't have to be as hard as you made it." Schmidt remarks with a laugh. "We all knew you were soulmates from the start."
   "Schmidt's right, it's been 18 years since you guys met, and we all knew it was meant to be, every step of the way." Winston adds.
   "It might have been a tough journey, but we're here now, and that's all that matters." Jess looks into Nick's eyes, and then grins at everyone else. The moon casts a luminescent film over them, and the stars twinkle with hope and contentment.