Jess made her way to the bar for another glass of wine and found a quiet spot by the far wall to stand for a moment. Shaking her head sadly, she watched Nick as he talked to Jamie and Bobby, Bonnie joining them a short time later. She felt terrible for pulling away from Nick just now. Things had been going so well between them, and now this. She took a long sip from her glass, pressing her back to the wall. She tried to rationalize that it's wasn't Nick that was putting any of this pressure on her, it was being at this wedding. And was it really pressure, or was she just letting every comment get into her head because she wanted to think about it?

She always did stuff like this. Over think everything.

She shook her head, drawing circles in the condensation on her glass.

Their relationship had already been more than she could have ever imagined. Up until this point, everything had been so effortless. Even their fights had been less about disagreeing and more about simply learning to feel comfortable communicating their feelings to one another. Nick had been trying so hard, the last thing she ever wanted to do was push him away. Even since they had arrived in Chicago, he had opened up about so many things that she would have thought would take ages for him to want to talk about. Maybe she had spent so much time assuming that he hadn't thought of these things yet, that the revelation that he HAD threw her completely off guard.

But what if moving this fast was a mistake? What if it meant that they would screw it up so badly that she would lose everything?

Realizing that she had been standing there long enough to finish the entire glass of wine and for the room to fill with guests ready to start dinner, she shook her head violently to bring herself back to reality.

She caught a glimpse of movement next to her as Schmidt leaned his back against the wall beside her. She took a deep breath and gave him a small smile.

Schmidt took a drink from his own glass. "Rough night?"

She pressed her eyes closed and took a deep breath, willing herself to stay calm. "What do you want Schmidt?" She lazily played with her empty glass, and rolled her shoulder against the wall to face him.

He nodded toward Nick. "What's up with Nick?"

Jess frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Look at him, he look like he's ready to kill someone. What happened?"

She glanced across the room sighed. "It's my fault. I don't know what's wrong with me tonight, but..." She pushed off the wall and took a step forward. "I should probably go talk to him."

Schmidt leaned forward and grabbed her arm. "Jess, wait." She looked back, shaking her head questioningly.

"Cece would have come if I invited her...right?"

Jess nodded, choosing her words carefully. "I think she really cares about you, Schmidt."

Schmidt scoffed and shook his head, glancing between Nick and Jess. "Just get over there, will you?"

Jess paused for a moment, giving Schmidt an understanding smile, before making her way across the room to Nick.

Placing her glass down gently on the table, Jess cupped her hand over Nick's shoulder.

Clearly flustered, Nick whipped around with a hefty, "What?" Seeing Jess, his eyes softened a little as he sighed. "What is it, Jess?"

She rubbed his shoulder as he turned all the way around to face her. "Can we talk for a minute? Before dinner starts?"

He gave her a weak smile and nodded, his voice much softer than before. "Sure."

Nick followed her into the hallway, nodding to a few guests as they passed by. Once outside the door, Jess took a deep breath and grabbed his hands. "Look, can we just...can we start over? Tomorrow's Christmas and this is supposed to fun. I'm really sorry about what happened before."

He squeezed her hands. "Jess, if you're upset about something..."

Her eyes darted to his and she responded quickly, cutting him off. "No, really, it's nothing. I just want to be here with you and have a good trip. So can we? start over?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that." He watched her expression carefully, still unconvinced that she wasn't upset about something. Her eyes seemed distant. "Jessica, you know I love you, right?"

Her body stiffened a little, uncomfortable with how unnerving his tone was. Damn it, she was really blowing it tonight. "Nick..."

He frowned. "No, I'm serious. I need you to know how much I wanted this trip to help prove that to you."

"You don't have to prove anything to me..."

"You have no idea what it means to me that you came here for this." He watched as she froze, holding her breath in anticipation. What did he mean by that? His voice hitched in his throat. "I've, um, I've never actually done this before. I mean, brought someone..."

She snapped her head back in confusion. "Wait, what? What do mean?"

He sighed. He hadn't planned for any of this to come out, especially here. Especially when it was clear to him that she was already hiding something from him. But he thought that maybe if he could get her to understand what a huge step this was for him, that somehow it would prove to her how much he wanted all of this too. Maybe it would make her feel better knowing he WAS taking their relationship seriously. "I didn't want to make a big deal about it, but well, I need you to know it IS a big deal. I uh,..." His words spilled out in one breath. "I've never brought someone home like this before."

Jess stood there stunned, her hands losing their grip on his. She pulled her hands close to her and nervously started playing with her hair laying over her shoulder, trying desperately to avoid his piercing gaze. She spoke in broken gasps. "Wait, just...not even Caroline? But why? I thought..." She took a deep breath to push away the anxiety that she thought had dissipated. "I thought you guys were serious..."

"We were, but not...it was never like that." He stared into her widening eyes and shook his head, closing his mouth before he said anything stupid. He tried to force a laugh, attempting to play off the entire thing so he wouldn't have to go into any more details. "It's in the past and it doesn't matter. Anyway, let's just have fun, okay?"

There was a moment of silence as she collected her thoughts, scrunching her face and pushing away all the emotion that was starting to make it hard to breathe again. "You... I think you're right. You got it. No more pressure." She reached out for his hands again, not only in an attempt to convince him they were still on the same page, but to quell the wave of doubt that was washing over her. How much longer could she do this? How much longer could she stand here and convince herself that the moment they had stepped off the plane, everything hadn't changed?

Nick tried to ignore the realization that she had somehow avoided eye contact with him throughout this entire conversation. What did she mean by her last statement?

Pressure? Was she feeling pressure? Is that why she had been acting so strange? Let it go, Miller. She asked to let it go.

She smiled and took his face in her hands, kissing him softly. As she closed her eyes she tried to push away the butterflies in her stomach. None of this had to MEAN anything. She was always so quick to read into things that weren't there, and this was a time when she simply couldn't do that. So what if he had dated Caroline for years and never brought her here. They were younger back then, things were different. She was just going to enjoy the rest of this trip.

"I'm really glad we're here together." She stepped closer to him as he grabbed her waist and pulled her close, feeling her arms slip around his neck.

He buried his face in her shoulder. "Me too."

Holding a little tighter, she took a deep breath. "I love you, Nick."