The 2 final days before the trip were really hectic for both Julia and Alex. They were running around trying to learn everything they could about the protest they were going to cover. And of course they had a lot of packing to do.
Julia and Kevin were getting along VERY well. The next night, of the day after they all had dinner together Kevin and Julia talked on the phone for like 3 hours. So did Alex and Nick but that didn't stop Alex from complaining about it. It's a good thing that they had 2 phone lines so they could each tie one up.
The day finally came when they were to leave for Russia, and Alex was going nuts. She was running all over the apartment trying to get everything ready before her doctor's appointment and flight.
"How the hell can a person lose a laptop? The damn things are too big to lose!" Alex yelled to no one in particular.
"You didn't lose your laptop, you already packed it. Now breathe. Nick will be here to pick you up for your appointment in like 5 minutes."
"You're right. I am ready anyway. I need to sit down and calm down." Alex did just that, and was in fact still sitting on the couch when Nick got there.
"Okay so after we go to the obstetricians office, we will come back here and pick you up." Alex said. Julia nodded and Nick said, "All righty Ali, let's get out of here."
In all of her life only Nick had ever called Alex, Ali and everytime he said it, Alex's stomach did a little flip flop. Alex was desperately trying to think of a nickname she could call Nick but nothing came to mind.
It seemed like it took forever to get into the doctor's office, and actually the doctor was running pretty late. Once we got in there it was even worse. The doctor unfortunately recognized Nick and asked for autographs for his daughters. The nice guy that Nick was, he signed everything the guy wanted. But the appointment took twice as long as it should have because the doctor kept asking questions of Nick, instead of examining Alex.
Finally they got out of there and Alex checked her watch. "Oh my God! We only have half an hour to get to the airport before my flight takes off."
"Then I might as well just take you to the airport and you can meet Julia there." Nick suggested.
"Okay just let me call her." Alex said and dialed the number on her cell.
"Hello." Julia said on the other end of the line.
"Hey Jules, as you can probably already tell, we are running kind of late. I will tell you all about why on the plan but the long and the short of it is that we can't take you to the airport. We'll just have to meet there."
"All righty see ya there." Julia said and hung up.
Just as she hung up Julia remembered that Alex had their only working car. Julia's was in the shop and Alex and Nick had taken it to her appointment. Just as Julia was wondering frantically how she would get to the airport, the phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered in a bit of a frantic voice.
"Hey girl, what's wrong?" Kevin asked, picking up on her feelings.
"Oh nothing besides the fact that my plane is leaving in less than half an hour and I have no way of getting on it." Julia said, almost yelling.
"All right, calm down. I'll drive you. I am like 5 minutes away from your place and it only takes about 10 minutes to the airport from yours so we can make it in lots of time."
"Thank you sooooooo much. You are such a life saver."
"No prob." Kevin said and hung up
They arrived at the aiport about 20 minutes later and met up with Alex and Nick at the gate. "Oh thank God we got here in time." Julia said when they were all together.
"I loaded all the luggage that was in the trunk. I hope that's all that we had." Alex said.
"Yeah that was it. Well we better get going. Our flight is gonna leave in like 2 minutes." Julia said. She kissed Kevin softly on his lips and said something about calling him once they got there. Alex wasn't about to remind her right then about long distance charges. She was too busy hugging Nick. "I will meet you on the net at 9 tomorrow night, remember my Yahoo ID is crazy_angel23." Alex reminded him. "I won't forget. Take care and be careful." Nick said and relinquished his hold on her.
As they walked to the gate, Alex turned around once to wave at Nick again and that was the last they saw of each other for 2 weeks.
Alex and Julia's time in Russia went well. Their 2 weeks there were very productive and they got a great story that TIME would probably use for another cover story. They caught the "Red Eye" home that night and got in at about 1 in the morning.
Nick came by with Kevin early the next morning. Kevin was taking Julia out for brunch so they could have some time alone and Nick was just going to hang out with Alex for a bit.
"Ali you look like crap." Nick said.
"Thanks, I love you too." Alex replied sarcastically.
"I didn't mean to insult you but when was the last time you ate? and slept a whole nights sleep?" Nick asked.
"About 2 days ago. Why?"
"Why? Because you're pregnant now. You have a baby to take care of. You can't just skip meals and not sleep." Nick yelled.
"What the hell is wrong with you? This is NOT your baby, this is MY baby, and just because for the last couple of days I haven't been taking caring of myself doesn't mean that it is always going to be like that!" Alex yelled back.
"That's right, I'm not the father." Nick said icily.
"Now what is that supposed to mean?" Alex asked, just as icily.
"It means that if I were the father, instead of some deadbeat that you slept with and didn't even really care about, I would make sure that you took care of yourself and our child." Nick yelled.
"Who are you to make assumptions about who I do and do not care about? I am not promiscuous and I thought that I loved this baby's father." Nick just made a snorting noise like he didn't believe her.
"That's it! Get out of my apartment. I don't even want to look at you!" Alex yelled at him.
"Fine. I will." Nick said and slammed the door on his way out.
The minute the door closed behind him, Alex broke down. How had things gotten to this point? she wondered to herself. She plunked down on the couch heavily and tears began to fall down her face. Alex began to care more for Nick than she even realized and that was why his stinging remarks hurt so much.
When Julia came back she could tell something was wrong with Alex, but all she could get out of her was that she and Nick had had a fight, nothing about what they fought about.
Alex walked around like a zombie for the next couple of days. She was so mixed up inside she just didn't understand what she was feeling. She was the one who had told Nick that she wanted no more than a friendship, but now she was feeling feelings towards him that were much more than just friendship. They had 2 weeks off of work, the editor had liked their story so much, but Alex didn't go out for the first whole week, she just moped around their apartment and Julia was beginning to get really worried.
Julia had plans to go out with Kevin one night and she asked Alex if she would be all right at home by herself.
"Don't worry. I'll be just fine. You go out and have fun. I promise to be good."
"Okay. I don't mean to pester you. It's just that I worry." Julia said and impulsively hugged her best friend.
"Try not to worry about me. As soon as I pull out of this funk I'll be just fine." Julia looked at the bags under her friends eyes, and the sadness in the same eyes, and she wasn't sure.
"Hey babe." Kevin said when Julia walked up to the table at the restaurant. Julia still had a worried expression on her face. "Hey Kev."
"Okay what's wrong?" Kevin asked in a concerned voice.
"It's Al, since we got home and she had that fight with Nick, that she won't tell me about, she hasn't been herself. She's gotten better, now she isn't moping so much but still something is off. She keeps telling me that she's just fine and that she has no feelings for Nick, so that can't be what's bothering her, but somehow I just don't believe her."
"It's exactly the same thing for Nick. I mean we are supposed to be on vacation. Our first one in a long time and he's not even enjoying himself. He went back to Florida, with AJ, Brian and Howie and they said he was still miserable there. Now that he's back in New York I see it all the time. He is miserable without her around. But I don't know what we can do to get them back."
"All that we can do is encourage them to go to one another. I don't know what else there is...." Kevin was cut off by the ring of his cell.
"Hello." Kevin said,
"Hey Kev." Nick replied from the other line.
"What's up?"
"Nothing much, I was just bored, I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out a bit."
"Sorry buddy I can't I'm on a date with Julia." Then a flash of inspiration hit Kevin. He put his hand over the mouth of the phone.
"Julia, you tell him about Alex maybe that will convince him more than me." Julia nodded willing to try anything, "Nick here's Julia, she wants to talk to you." Kevin said and handed the phone to Julia before Nick could protest.
"Hi Nick."
"Hey Julia."
"I just wanted to tell you that I think both you and Al are screwing this up. You guys were heading towards a great friendship and I don't know what happened but now you're both miserable. I really and honestly think that you should go to her. It will make you both happy."
"I don't know if...."
"Trust me, it's a good idea." Julia said.
"Okay I'll do it." Nick said with a new found confidence.
"Good boy." Julia said and handed the phone back to Kevin.
"I guess I'll let you go now." Nick said to Kevin, happier than he had been in a while.
"Sounds like a plan." Kevin replied and shut the phone with a smile. Julia was likewise smiling and they enjoyed the rest of their meal without interruption.
Back at his hotel room Nick put on his coat, since it was December in New York City and quickly left his hotel with a smile on his face. He was standing at the foot of Alex's building nearly 15 minutes later. Nick took a long breath in and then let it out, and began striding purposefully into the building and up the stairs. He had snow in his hair and he wasn't wearing his best clothes ever but he didn't care.
Alex was sitting on the couch reading a book she had just bought when she head a knock at the door. "Julia forgot her keys.. again." she sighed to herself and got up to open the door. Alex was floored to see Nick standing at her door.
"Nick...I....What are you doing here?" she said when she finally got her thoughts in order.
"I came to see you." he said stating the obvious. For a minute Alex just stood there, saying nothing at all and just looking at him. Alex nearly laughed at the snow that covered his head and shoulders until she remembered that they were fighting.
"Why?" Alex asked, purposely making him work for this.
"I missed you Ali." Nick said quietly. All of her resolve to make him suffer left her when he said those 4 little words. Tears began to spring up in her eyes.
"I missed you too Nick." Alex said. After this Nick couldn't help himself, he had to hug her. Alex was definitely not going to protest though, she hugged Nick back tightly.
From over her shoulder, where Nick's head still was, Alex heard him say;
"Wow it's a blizzard out there. I might have to camp out here."
"Fine by me. As long as you don't make a mess."
"Yeah it's more likely that you will make the mess and blame it on me. Remember I have seen your room." Nick said.
"Don't you have any respect for a pregnant woman? God, I am like a balloon here and all you can do is tease about my grooming habits. You know this is totally off topic, but I think that I finally figured out a nickname for you; Blue.'' Alex complained.
"Aww c'mon Ali. I think the round belly is kinda cute. Blue? Why blue? " Nick said.
"Well, duh! Because your eyes are so blue." Alex said over her shoulder as she walked to the kitchen to make them some hot chocolate.
"Since I'm stuck here with you," Alex said in a long suffering voice, "I guess we can watch the old Christmas movie marathon that is on tonight."
"There's one tonight? Already?" Nick asked. Alex just gave him a look, "It is the 17th. Oh and speaking of Christmas, what are you doing?"
"Well my family is being forced to move to Los Angeles right then, so we aren't going to celebrate Christmas until the week after. Why? What did you have in mind?"
"I was just wondering if you wanted to come home with me for Christmas? I mean Julia is coming and my family and friends all get together around this time of the year. Because it is, well, Christmas and we like to celebrate together and..." Nick cut off her nervous rambling. "I would love to come home with you."
"That's good. Jules and I have big plans. We are going to rent 2 gigantic presidential suite at a hotel in Hamilton, that my dad owns. Each room is like 2 stories. It's not even a room, it's so big. Anyway back to what I was saying. They both have like a gagillion bedrooms, so there is definitely enough room for everyone to sleep there. The best added bonus is that we don't have to pay for anything, since my dad owns the hotel. And we are all going to bring our presents there to open them Christmas morning."
"And then the next week you can come to LA with me and celebrate Christmas with my family and everyone else." Nick said.
"You really want me to?" Alex asked in a small voice.
"Of course I do Ali, I asked didn't I?"
"Well ya."
Just then there was a phone call. It was Julia, she was just calling to tell Alex that she was going to go back to Kevin's hotel with him since it was much closer to the restaurant than their apartment and therefore more safe than travelling all the way back home.
The talked a bit more about their Christmas plans but then settled in on the couch, beside one another to watch the movies.
Alex woke up with the sensation that she was sleeping on top of someone. She opened her eyes to the dark room. The last thing she remembered was watching movies with Nick and then...nothing. I must have fallen asleep! Alex thought to herself. Then she realized who's chest she was lying on and who had his arms wrapped around her, even though he too was sleeping peacefully. Alex felt so warm and secure in Nick's arms that she almost didn't want to get up, but she was getting a bit of a cramp in her back so she tried to ease out of Nick's grasp as slowly and carefully as she could, without waking him up. Unfortunately he did wake up.
"Hey, wasn't I a comfortable enough pillow?" Nick said groggily.
"No you were kinda hard and lumpy. Just kidding. I was getting a cramp in my back so I figured that I should get into a nice flat bed. But you can sleep in my room if you want, I'll take Julia's room." Alex said as she got all the way up.
"Are you kidding? I think that if I went in that room I wouldn't come back out alive!" Nick said as he shuffled down the hallway after her.
"Fine then you can sleep in Jules' room."
"All right I will then. Have a good sleep."
"You too, see you in the morning."
