A/N: I wrote this a day or two after "Mars Landing" and posted it on Tumblr. I decided to post it here before the new episode.

They close the bedroom door, both staring at his bed. What now? Sleep in the same bed after breaking up? If they're ever going to go back to being friends they can't be somewhere in between. There has to be a clean break.

"I'll take the floor," he says softly.

"Oh, okay," She says quietly. They awkwardly nod at each other, and Nick pulls out his blankets from the closet. He takes the offered pillows from Jess, and makes his nest on the floor.

"Can I turn out the light?" she asks from under her own blankets on the bed.

"Yeah," he responds simply.

The room dims into darkness and Nick rolls over on his side, pulling the blankets up to his ears and just lays there. Tears drip silently from the corner of his eyes, and he hears each soft tapping sound as they land on his pillow. He takes a deep breath in order to attempt to get himself under control when the sound of a sniffle comes from the bed.

He hears another one after a few moments, tight and stuffy. And then his heart begins to break even more when he hears the shaky inhales, deep exhales, and then the sound is muffled- the hiccuping into her pillow.

He can't stand to hear her hurting so much. He wipes his own face on his pillow, enlarging the already-spreading damp spot on the pillow case, and throws back his blankets. Silently walking to her bed, the shadow of her curled up body comes into his vision in the dark. Her back is towards him and she's shaking. Tears drop from his eyes again as he sits on the edge of her bed. It startles her and she looks at him over her shoulder. Her eyes glassy and puffy. He reaches out and cups her shoulder with his hand, moves it to her face to sweep aside the stray hairs sticking to her tear-stained cheeks.

She turns over to face him again, her own hand reaching up to touch his face, skimming her thumb under his eyes to catch the tears from his wet lashes.

"Nick, why are we doing this to ourselves?" her voice comes out warbled and choked.

"Because... we fight all the time. You plan the future and I'm afraid of thinking that far ahead. You have expectations for me that I can't live up to. We're not on the same page. It was more simple when we were just friends."

"We were never 'just friends', Nick."

He's silent, realizing she's right. "You said you love me more than you've ever loved anyone.

"I do."

"Then how can we just let go of what we have?"

"You said it yourself; what if that's all we have in common?"

She pulls back the blankets and after a slight hesitation he slips in, lying on his side facing her.

"When you find the love of your life," she searches out his hand and takes hold of it. "You fight for it."

He squeezes her hand and continues to look at her, giving her all of his attention.

"We can't just decide we have no future together after a hung-over shouting match, Nick. We have to talk; not just sweep our problems under the rug until we explode."

He nods. "Yeah, we do."

"Ok, tomorrow?"

He nods. "Tomorrow."

As he moves to get out of bed, she pulls him back by the hand she'd been holding. "No, stay here," she says with a desperate edge to her voice.

He pauses and then settles back in, facing her. After a moment she pulls him to her, throwing her arm around him and pulling him half on top of her. Both of her arms wrap around the back of his neck and his face is buried in her shoulder.

"We'll work through this. We will."

He nods into her neck and whispers "I love you" into her ear.

"I love you too. We'll talk tomorrow. Let's just sleep now."

They relax into each other and his last thought before he goes to sleep is of overwhelming hope.