Hey guys! Sorry I kept you waiting for so long, except not really. Yeah, that makes me sound like such a bitch, but, you know, whatever. Here's chapter two. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Dude. Dude. Dude. Just... Dude. I don't own New Girl. I fucking wish I did, but, you know, if I did I wouldn't have to waste so many 11:11 wishes on wishing that I did. I'd be able to wish for something cooler, like a tiger. Or no, even better: two tigers. Yeah, has your mind just been blown or what?

His Fault
Chapter Two:
The Wait

"Did you see the gunman's face?" A police officer with light brown eyes and a thinning head of hair with the nametag "Jonah" asked for what felt like the millionth time that night. It was late, around two or three in the morning, and everyone sitting in the otherwise empty waiting room was tired, worried, and sick of this guy's questions. He was just trying to do his job, they knew, but it was just getting annoying now. After four hours of asking question after question, they thought this guy might give it a break, but apparently, he didn't have a home life, because the questions just kept coming and coming and coming!

With a snarl on her face, Cece leaned forward in her chair and hissed at the officer, "Look, Officer Jonah, I know you're just trying to do your job here, but could you give it a rest for twenty minutes? My friend here has been through a lot tonight and we would appreciate a break from all your questions." Her deadly glare was more than enough for a seasoned cop such as Officer Jonah to know it was time for a coffee and donut break. Maybe he'd have more luck once the witness ― they were all just witnesses at three in the morning, after all; let the day-shift guy learn their names ― had some time to process everything. He had been awfully persistent with his questions this particular night, but he just wanted to catch this guy. Attempted murder was all it said on the arrest warrant at the moment, but the way things were shaping up to be, it might turn into full on manslaughter* before the night was over.

"Finally, he's gone!" Schmidt sighed once Officer Jonah was out of the room, slinking down in his chair. He had nothing against cops, but that one had had particularly bad taste in hair care products and it was all he could do to not lecture him on it, especially given the fact that his hair was starting to thin on top and he had done a horrible, dreadful job trying to cover it up…

Don't get him wrong, he was concerned for his friend ― he had been in a state of panic once he got the call to come to the hospital with Winston, rushing out of the loft without so much as running a comb through his hair, weaving in and out of traffic in an attempt to get there as soon as he could, almost hitting a bum or two along the way, but they were in the wrong anyway; when you see headlights and hear a horn blaring, you move, damnit, you don't just stand there waiting to get hit! ― but Winston had told him to man the hell up before they got there, they didn't need him fainting on them in the middle of the hospital. At this time of night, the really sick and injured patients needed the staff, not some white boy who couldn't keep his anxiety and panic under control…

"Yeah ― are you gonna be okay?" Cece asked with a tone of worry. She had gotten the call an hour after the ambulance had arrived at the hospital and had rushed right over in all her middle-of-the-night glory ― Schmidt and Winston obviously in similar attire ― but that didn't matter. Nothing else mattered now except their friends' well-being.

"Yeah, I just… where is that damn doctor? He said he'd be done by now ― do you think something happened?"

"I…" Cece sighed and shook her head, reaching over and pulling her friend to her in a comforting hug. She didn't know, she was a model, not a doctor, so until they talked to the doctor again, they would all have to wait. And the wait… it was killing them. For all they knew, their friend, their roommate, was dying on that operating table and they wouldn't even know about it until it was too late…

"Sshh, don't cry. Everything will be alright." Cece cooed, trying her best to get their friend to calm down. Getting all worked up like this was not going to help anyone, so it was better to just think positive thoughts, as hard as it might seem at the moment.

"You're right, but I just… God, I can't lose… What if… God!"

With a sigh, Winston stood up and walked over to the vending machine. Smoothing out some bills from his pocket, he got them all some snacks and drinks, they were all getting pretty damn hungry anyway. As he walked back over to his friends, he pretended not to notice the bright yellow bag sitting in the corner splattered with blood that was in a big plastic bag marked evidence. Why the damn cop hadn't just taken the bag back to the station was beyond him, but it was doing no one any good to see it there. If the cops didn't worry him so damn much, he might have moved it out of sight, but, well, the cops weren't exactly his buddies, he had learned that from quite a young age, thank you very much, so he knew better than to touch anything of theirs. They didn't need any more drama right now.

"It's gonna be okay, babe." Cece said again, taking two candy bars from Winston's outstretched hand, she declined the soda, however; she would have to kill herself over the candy bar as it was, no need to throw a pop into the mix, too.

"Cece's right." Schmidt nodded, throwing back an M&M as he greedily washed it down with a sip of Pepsi. Sugar always seemed solved everything at three in the morning, his constant dieting be damned.

"Yeah, it'll be fine. These doctors know what they're doing." Winston said, but he didn't really believe the words himself. The truth was, the doctors had said they would be done by now, so the fact that they hadn't heard a damn word from any of the nurses or the doctor himself… It couldn't be good in any sense of the word. They were all thinking it, so there was no need to verbalize it, no need to worry their friend any more than they already were. No need to make this situation any realer than it already was.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

"Excuse me?" The doctor finally entered the waiting room two hours later at five after five AM, his face tired but not grim. Winston shook his friends awake and nodded to the doctor; it was about damn time he come out! They didn't voice their frustration at his tardiness, however, they were more interested in how the surgery had gone, if their friend was still… Well, they just wanted to know if everything had gone well or not. Jumping to their unsteady, sleepy feet, they braced themselves for the news, watching the doctor's face as they awaited his words.

"How did it go?" Winston finally asked, the first to break the dreadful silence.

The doctor ― he had said his name was something Robertsin ― sighed and shook his head, a terrible cold feeling taking over their veins and hearts as they jumped to the worst possible outcome. Dr. Robersin, however, continued as though they didn't think their friend was dead. "I don't know what the hell happened. The bullet was lodged in his shoulder, tearing the muscle tissue and even chipping a part of the bone. It took a while to get the bleeding to stop after we removed the bullet, we would have left the damn thing in, but given the location, the chances of it migrating were too big to risk it. So we took the bullet out and as we worked on the bleeding… his heart stopped."

"Oh my God." Cece mumbled, reaching over and grabbing Jess' hand as tears threatened to spill over from her eyes as she wrapped Nick's jacket around her tighter.

Dead.

Nick Miller was dead. A strangled sob escaped her throat as she began to crumble right there in the waiting room, her friends coming closer, not able to believe the news.

"But," the doctor added quickly, "We were able to start it again only moments later. He was clinically dead for three minutes and legally dead for about one minute, though. Lucky for him one of the assisting doctors wouldn't give up on him, otherwise this would be a very different conversation right now." He sighed again. Jess wanted to slap him, though, just because he had gotten her all worked up like that. A wave of relief washed over her seconds later, however, as his words sunk in and their true implications reached her thoughts. Nick was alive and all was well… Maybe.

"After that, we got the bleeding to stop and stitched him right up. It took a little longer than I thought it would, but he's alive. He's in his room resting right now, but he should be waking up soon, if you want to see him. The nurse will show you to his room when you're ready." He finished, wiping his brow as he walked from the room, wanting to duck out and get cleaned up before he answered any sort of questions. That would come later, as soon as they calmed down and saw Nick in the flesh.

"He's alive." Jess sighed, falling into the chair closest to her. "Oh God." She whispered, bringing her hands up to her eyes.

Alive.

Nick Miller was alive.

Thank God!

"It's okay, babe. He's… he's okay. Do you want to go see him now?" Cece asked, rubbing her friend's back comfortingly. Though she had been strong this whole time for the sake of Jess, she was pretty damn relieved herself that Nick was going to be alright; he was her friend, too, after all. Even if she wasn't in love with him, she did still care about him, and his death would have devastated her as well. Not to mention the damage it would have done to Jess herself... It would have killed her, would have taken her sunshine away from her forever.

"Yeah." Jess nodded her head, letting her arms fall to the sides of her chair. Winston and Schmidt were standing in front of the two girls, maybe standing guard, maybe just waiting to see what Jess wanted to do, but either way, it was nice to have them there. "But, could I… I mean, would it be alright if I…" She bit her lip, not sure how to finish her thought. She wanted to go in to see him alone for a few minutes, but what right did she have to ask them to wait out here while she went in to see him alone? He was just as important to them as he was to her, and they, Winston and Schmidt, had known him longer! She couldn't ask them to ―

"You wanna go see him alone, babe?" Cece asked, understanding her friend's plight. Winston and Schmidt looked as though they wanted to object when she nodded her head meekly, but Cece shot them both a look that told them to shut the hell up; if Jess wanted to see Nick alone, she was going to see Nick alone and they could just deal with it. "Alright, go ahead, Jess; we'll wait right here for you to come back out before we go see him ― 'kay?" she smiled softly at her friend as she nodded and stood up, walked over to the nurse and asked her to show her to Nick Miller's room, please and thank you. As they walked away, Cece sighed and slouched down in her chair, letting out a breath.

Everyone was fine. Nick was alive, Jess was going to be okay, everything was just fine now.

"Hey, Cece?" Schmidt said, sitting down next to her as Winston slumped down in a chair across from them. Everyone else got to sleep these last two hours; it was his turn now, if only for a few minutes.

"Yeah, Schmidt?"

"How are you doing?"

"It's been a tough night for everyone, Schmidt." She sighed, swallowing slightly. And it didn't matter then that she was engaged and he was still in love with her, they were just two people who had been worried about their friend. She leaned her head over onto his shoulder then and closed her eyes, not caring about the small smile on his face as he stroked her tangled hair. Because at five in the morning, it just didn't matter that she was engaged.

Okay, so, truth time: I've had this chapter written out since before Elizabeth came along, so the Schmece or whatever the Schmidt/Cece shipping is called ― I've been a bit too wrapped up in Ness to really notice ― here at the end was written in before I shipped Schmidt/Elizabeth. Quite frankly, Schmidt needs Elizabeth in his life right now, not Cece. But I don't think Cece should marry Shavy, though. It's trickly territory, those guys, and I'll feel better discussing it once Nick and Jess get together ― seriously, my OTP being canon before the end of the series? I can count on one hand how many times that has happened, okay? But, ah, don't even get me started.

So, yeah, I killed Nick Miller. That just happened, people. But then I brought him back to life, so it's all cool.

To make up for my killing Nick, there's some Ness action in the next chapter. Just a smidge, but enough to make it up to you guys.

* = Yeah, so, I did some research and I'm pretty sure they'd get the mugger on 2nd degree murder if Nick had stayed dead, but since he didn't, they're not, but, ah, not my point. I left it in as manslaughter because that word has more of an impact than "2nd degree murder" does. So, yeah, I sacrificed facts and real world accuracy for dramatic affect ― I don't do this all the time, but often enough that you shouldn't take anything I mention in any of my stories too seriously if I say something and it turns out I'm wrong ― If I'm right, anyway; the law isn't my strong point, I just did a quick web-search and am basing my info on maybe fifteen minutes of reading. Maybe. If anyone has any knowledge on the subject they'd like to offer, feel free to educate me; I'm always looking to stay informed, after all.

Always,
~Hisa-Ai~