A/N: The word 'friendishness' originated from a conversation between Rory and Paris. I thought it would be fitting here. I feel uncertain about publishing this story, it has become quite precious to me and I'm scared of releasing it for the world to read. So reviews would be very much appreciated. And I dedicate this to my friend April who puts up with all my craziness about it ;)

Disclaimer: This story is my baby and I would never disclaim it, I do not, however, own the Gilmore Girls. Duh.

Everything was hectic, as always before an open day. This time they were determined that no poets would premier new material, and they wanted their artists to actually name what they painted, not deliver untitled art on last minute. As much fun as this job was, communicating with artists wasn't particularly easy. Especially since his own communication skills have never been great. Not his fault really, it was both in the Danes and Mariano genes. Now he was happy he was sent to get coffee, that meant about ten minutes without talking to anyone. He put his earphones in and headed down the road.

She was sitting in a café, sipping her extra large black coffee with no sugar, her laptop with a half-written article in front of her. She had less than two hours to finish it, and another story to send off the same day. Unfortunately the concept of 'running out of time' was clearly impossible to grasp for her colleague, Ethan. His newspaper didn't demand more than two articles a week. Now he was sitting next to her, attempting, once again, to attract her attention.

"Are you sure you don't want to get a drink tonight?"

"I'm sorry Ethan, I told you already I have a story to finish." She was trying her best to remain polite but she was really uncomfortable with him sitting there and staring at her, she wished he would just leave her alone so she could get on with her work.

"I can help you with that!" he said a bit too enthusiastically.

"Thanks Ethan but I also have some phone calls to make, that will keep me busy tonight."

"Can't you..."

She looked up to fix him with her withering stare that she perfected over the years but instead she saw another familiar face. She didn't expect him there, but it would be a lie to say that she didn't fantasise about meeting him when she was in Philadelphia. She wouldn't seek him out purposefully, but she wondered what it would be like to see him. On the metro. Somewhere on the street. She wasn't entirely surprised now but her tongue still felt numb.

"Whoa! Rory?! What... what are you doing here?"

"Jess!" she laughed nervously, trying to mask her embarrassment. " I'm... trying to work" she rolled her eyes meaningfully which was enough for him to understand that she was silently mocking the man next to her. "I came to Philly this morning with Obama's presidential campaign, I'm reporting."

"And you've already tracked down the best coffee in town," he smirked.

She opened her mouth to answer that she is a Gilmore after all and if she learned anything from her mother it was sensing places with good coffee but Ethan fidgeted in his chair and interrupted her.

"Excuse me, Rory, won't you introduce me?"

" Oh, I'm sorry. Ethan, this is my old friend Jess, Jess this is Ethan, a reporter of the Atlanta Daily News."

"Hi, nice to meet you."

"Yeah, you too," Jess dismissed him quickly. "So Rory, I've got to run back to work now but we should catch up."

"...You're sure?" He answered her with a shrug and a slight smile. "We should!" she said, sounding happier than she intended.

" How about tonight then?"

" Great, 8 o'clock?"

" Come around to Truncheon." He smiled and turned back, holding a tray with four cups of coffee in his hands.

She looked after him, grinning. After a few seconds Ethan coughed, causing her to look at his face full of outrage. She couldn't stand him anymore so she grabbed her messenger bag, got up and left without a word, with her laptop and coffee in her hands.

He wasn't sure how to feel or what to think about this. Was it crazy, suggesting her to hang out? Could they possibly make it not awkward? He was over it, or he liked to think he was. Yes, she hurt him, yes, he was drunk and picked up random girls for two weeks after the last time she was in Philly, but maybe if they both tried they could be friends. Friend-ish. Or at least be 'there' without hurting each other with their existence itself liked they seemed to do for the last couple of years. Since that day of the open house, he made himself hard to hurt. He knew he needed a radical change, he couldn't remain as vulnerable as he was then, he couldn't let her have that effect on him anymore. He never tried to forget about her but he somehow managed to block out the feelings he had for her, he really wanted to think of her as a friend, somebody he cared about but not in that way. He wanted his head alone to be the ruler of him. And he didn't even know that as a consequence of blocking out his feelings for her, he became incapable of love. He didn't think he even needed it. He had close friends now like never before, he had Harriet, Matt and Chris, he had Luke even though he wouldn't say it out loud, but he couldn't give all of him to someone else again, the way he did with her. It became his form of self-defence. It made him feel safe. He walked back into the Truncheon office, greeted by a loud argument that involved a great deal of literary quotations and an even louder telephone that no one was bothered to pick up. It felt familiar and his mind quickly drifted away to work.

She decided to walk to Truncheon to have time to think but maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. She knew he had every reason to hate her, but he was the one who suggested catching up so maybe he didn't. Maybe he felt similarly about her as she did about him before. No matter how much he hurt her, she couldn't bring herself to hate him. Which was probably a good thing, maybe they could be friends again. Friend-ish. Or just 'there' without hurting each other with their existence itself. But was she really able to regard him as just being 'there' without her feelings going further? She tried it back in High School, over six years earlier, but it didn't exactly stop her. Nor did Dean or her mum for that matter. But now that she reached the doors of Truncheon, she had to be civil and not seem like she was thinking about it. About him. She smiled nervously and pushed the door.

It couldn't start any more awkwardly than that. They bumped into each other in the door. His hand landed on her elbow to make sure she was stable.

"Oops, sorry! Oh. Hi."

"Hi. I just saw you through the window and came out because Matt is having a nervous breakdown and you don't want to see it," he said quickly and released her hand. She wished Lorelai was there to see that he was able to speak not only in monosyllables.

"Okay, sure, so... what do we do now?"

"I don't know, drinks?"

"Why not." She agreed, feeling relieved as always when she had a plan. Then something crossed her mind. "Actually, no! Anywhere we go, I'll be scared that Ethan and the guys from work will be there."

He chuckled and started walking slowly, putting his hands deep in his pockets.

"The guy from this morning?"

"Yeah, he won't go away!" she pouted.

"I'm kind of grateful to him."

"What?"

"I think I saw your withering stare after all these years. Because of him," he smirked.

"What makes you think it wasn't directed at you?" she answered, suddenly feeling more comfortable. Teasing him was always something she was good at.

"Huh. Maybe because I can't recall any reason why I would deserve it?"

Somehow this sentence brought back memories of the last time they met. She looked down at her shoes.

"Jess... I'm sorry"

"Hey, don't apologize for your withering stare, it was entertaining!"

"No, not that... you know what I mean."

"And so much for small talk," he sighed, then looked ahead blankly, biting his lip. "Rory, don't... it's forgotten."

He tried to hide his emotions, something he thought he was a master in, but she knew him too well. She saw what he wanted to keep to himself. The anger, the hurt. In a way it offended her.

"No, Jess, we're adults now, for once we should be able to talk about the hard stuff," she said, surprised at her own confidence. In fact, she wasn't sure she wanted to talk about it herself. But the old wound was now open and it required a disinfection instead of stitches put on the dirt. At least that's what she thought. He clearly didn't share her opinion.

"Look, Rory, it's in the past. I admit that... the last time I saw you... it hurt. And I did some really stupid things after that. But I'm okay now, I hope you are too and we're cool, so forget about that. Please," he added quietly.

She felt tears blurring her vision but she didn't let them out. They walked in silence for several minutes, each of them considering what had and hadn't been said, trying to process, gain perspective. Surprisingly, in a way the silence was comfortable.

"Tell me about your job," Jess inquired, finally breaking it. His tone was lighter.

"Erm, it's... it's good," she answered, still struggling for composure and bringing her thoughts back to the conversation. "Great actually. I don't get to see my mom much because of all the travelling but I'm getting to know new people and places. In addition to my articles I could now write a hotel guide book across the country."

"Sounds like fun," he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"It is!"

"I know, I know, I just never pictured you doing that. You wanted to crawl around trenches while really... you were the happiest when you could stay in your room with the safety net of your books around you. Now you're doing neither."

"I guess I've grown up and expanded my horizons." She hesitated. "I like what I'm doing, it's exciting, and I appreciate the fact that I can wear heels, which I wouldn't really be able to in trenches," she smiled.

"I'm glad."

"What about you, Jess, how is Truncheon?"

"Let's see, Matt keeps complaining that we can't break out into the mainstream but we're doing good. Actually we've expanded, we have a staff of four now."

"Oh yeah? Still you, Matt and Chris?"

"Yes, plus Harriet, she's been with us for almost a year."

"A girl?"

"Why are you so surprised?" he shot her an amused look. "It's refreshing!"

Rory scanned his face for more details but he didn't keep her waiting.

"Of course, it's been painful since she's been on and off with Matt, but she's getting more work done than those two put together. Personally I find it quite shocking how much batting the eyelashes can get you in the literary industry."

"And any other for that matter," she playfully batted her eyelashes at him.

"Huh, not with me, Gilmore, I wouldn't read Ayn Rand again even if you kept doing that," he chuckled.

"Hey, watch it!" she nudged him. "I've read The Old Man and The Sea!"

He hissed scornfully. "Rory Gilmore being content with reading just one – the most famous book by the greatest writer of all time. You realise that he wrote nine other novels and a bunch of stories and poems, right?"

"Okay, so I've read A Farewell to Arms too," she gave up.

"You did?" he looked at her with an emerging smirk of satisfaction.

"Twice."

"Now, now, that's too much for me to take!" he teased.

All the tension from earlier disappeared as they spent over two hours wandering around Philadelphia, talking about books, movies, music, mocking each other, making numerous Rocky references which made Jess roll his eyes, even discussing their family. Technically almost-family, but they were both convinced that this time round Luke and Lorelai's wedding was going to happen. The only subject they carefully avoided were their significant others or lack thereof. They both were afraid that the other one might take it as an allusion to something and they didn't want that. Jess knew from his uncle about Rory's rejection of Logan's proposal and she didn't mention anyone else except for Ethan so there was nothing to talk about. And she didn't ask about him. Not that there was anything to tell. It was just better not to bring back the tension that they started their conversation with.

"As nice as this was, this is my hotel and my bus is leaving town at 8 am tomorrow."

"Right, go get some sleep. I'm glad we did this, Rory."

"The pleasure is all mine, cousin," she replied sarcastically. "Let me know if you find that book."

"I will."

"Bye, Jess," she said and hugged him spontaneously.

He stood still for a split second but then returned her friendly hug. "Bye, Rory."

He put his earphones in and selected the Ramones while he walked back home. He was happy with how the evening turned out, it seemed like they could be friends after all. And they were about to become family too, so it was good that they could get along without all the heartache. He got to his apartment above Truncheon, sat on his bed with a copy of A Farewell to Arms (he hadn't read it for a year now) and soon fell asleep with a smile on his face. Under whatever label, it looked like he had a chance to get his Rory back.

She walked back into her hotel room and jumped onto the bed. She was definitely pleased with how the evening went. She realised that the thought of her and Jess being a family never crossed her mind. It was quite ridiculous. She missed hanging out with him, his wit, his mocking, his smile. And the proof that they could get along was great. But it was just what she feared, too. She didn't even realise it herself, but there was a feeling creeping in from somewhere deep inside her, that this wasn't good enough.

In a strange, dark hotel room, Rory Gilmore hid her face in a stiff white pillow and shed heavy tears.