Disclaimer: You can sue me, and take everything I have, which is nothing. See ya in court!

AN: So I haven't written in awhile, I get way too inside my own head when I put it down on paper. Sorry this one's so short, next chapter will be longer.

Nick rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he glanced at his alarm on the stand. 3:25am, the bright green light shone into the darkness, and Nick groggily wondered what had roused him. His hand moved to the bed beside him as he wrapped his arm around his petite girlfriend's waist, pulling her closer to him as she slept. As he settled back into his slumber a noise from the front of the loft brought his eyes back open, and Nick realized that this must have been what had awoken him. As he slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed he heard the noise echo through the hallway towards his door again, and he scrunched his brow in grogginess and confusion as he arose to investigate. As he came out into the hall, glancing back quickly at the face of his girlfriend to check that she was still asleep, he quickly realized that the noise was the sound of someone struggling on the other side of the front door. He sighed softly to himself as he realized that there was only one person it could possibly be as he knew Coach was fast asleep and Winston was on duty.

"Jess," Nick said, opening the door on a clearly intoxicated Jessica Day. "What are you doing?"

Jessica had been struggling to hold herself up while trying to get her key into the hole of her front door. She was failing. There was clearly something wrong with her key as she battled with the lock on the door. When Nick swung the door wide, she stumbled slightly, and he reached his arm to her shoulder to steady her. "Nick!" Jessica exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're here, my key doesn't fit anymore, look!" Jess bent over the lock again to show Nick.

"Jess, it doesn't fit because you're trying to get in with your car key," Nick explained, taking the keys from her hand and wrapping his arm around her waist to support her. "C'mon, lets get you to bed." Nick knew there was no point in getting mad at her, she was wasted, and anything he said now would be lost on her by sunrise.

Jessica allowed Nick to guide her to her bedroom, giggling slightly at her mistake with the keys. "Why would they make keys look so similar, thats just confusing," she said as Nick led her to the bedroom across from his. Nick sat her gently on the side of her bed and then turned on her bedside lamp, flooding the room with light. Jessica squinted as the light came on, and watched as Nick walked back over to her and bent in front of her.

"What happened Jess?" Nick asked as he sat kneeled in front of her, his hands went to her feet to begin removing her boots.

Jessica put her hands on his shoulders while he worked on her boots to keep from falling backwards. "I was at this club, and there was this guy who wanted to buy me a drink, so I let him, and then we danced, and then we had another drink, and then we kissed, and then we had another drink, and then we got into a fight, and then I came here." Jessica rambled groggily to Nick as he removed her first boot. Nick could feel the heat in his chest rise as she told him what happened, obviously some douche bag had tried to take advantage of her.

"Jessica, you can't do that! Do you know how dangerous that is? You can't just let some stranger buy you drinks all night, you're lucky you were able to ditch him," Nick shook his head trying to keep his temper in check as he went to work on the other boot.

Jessica, despite the alcohol running through her bloodstream, did not miss the tone he was using with her, and immediately became defensive. "I'm not an idiot Nick. I know what he wanted. And you know what, maybe I wanted to too! You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do, you're not my boyfriend anymore." Jessica retorted angrily, still clutching his shoulder for balance.

Nick looked up into her eyes, he didn't know what to say. She was right, he wasn't her boyfriend anymore, and hadn't been for over seven months. His girlfriend was across the hallway, asleep in his bed. As mad as he was at Jess, she was absolutely right, he had no place to tell her what she could and couldn't do. But somehow, knowing this, and knowing that he couldn't stop her from putting herself into potentially dangerous situations, made him even more angry. He pulled the boot from her foot, and stood up slowly, allowing her to remove her hands from his shoulders, "you're right Jessica, I'm not your boyfriend anymore," he said evenly, looking down into her eyes. He dropped the boot next to the other one, and walked from her room back to his without another word.