Summary: Rory dropped out of school and ran away with Jess when he came to Yale in season 4. Their relationship went crashing down after a year and she went back to Yale. At Yale she met Logan Huntzberger and fell for him. At her graduation he asks her to marry him, but before moving on with her future, she needs to revisit her past.

Good to know before starting to read:

Rory's and Logan's relationship and how they met are kind of similar to the show. What you might need to know beforehand is that she didn't intern for Logan's dad, thus she didn't start doubting herself and drop out of Yale (again).

She and Jess haven't met since their relationship crashed, meaning he didn't show up with his book and therefore she and Logan didn't get into a fight and he never cheated on her and of course Jess didn't invite her to an open house in Philadelphia either.

As for the time frame, picture that about a year went by between seasons 4 and 5, and of course: the Dean-second-time-around thing didn't happen.

As for everyone else: Luke, Lorelai, Chris, April and everyone not mentioned, things went down pretty much as in the show.

Everything else in their history that's important, will be in the story in the shape of flashbacks. Also, to make it easier to follow a story hopping from present to past times, all the flashbacks will be in italics.

A/N I know that by posting this I now have four on-going stories, but what can I say: my muse is suffering from a great deal of decisions anxiety, she's actually quite uncontrollable at this point!

I started writing this story after watching one of my favorite rom-com movies, I won't tell you which one it is, since that might ruin the plot. If you figure it out, well…then you know what's ahead of you!

Anyway, I know I said I have a lot of things going on and won't be able to update very frequently (that still goes by the way, at least for another couple of weeks or so) so I can understand how you probably are a bit disappointed that when I finally find the time to write I write something completely new instead of updating the already posted stories. I'm sorry about that, but trust me when I say that I always finish what I've started, so there won't be any unfinished stories, and this story won't be that long and I have been writing on it for quite some time and I have the plot pretty much figured out already.

Enough with the excuses and onto the story!

Some conversation in this prologue is borrowed from Season 4, episode 21 "Last week fights, this week tights"

Prologue - 3 years ago

"Look, you know we're supposed to be together." Jess pleaded with a desperate voice. "I knew it the first time I saw you two years ago, and you know it too. I know you do."

"No." Rory shook her head. Why was he doing this to her? She had finally picked up the pieces after he broke her heart the last time. She couldn't do this. "No, no, no, no!"

"Don't say 'no' just to make me stop talking or make me go away. Only say 'no' if you really don't want to be with me."

"I can't do that Jess. You know that." She felt tears stinging behind her eyes and tried to hold them back. "I want to be with you, but not like this. I have school, I have friends and family here, I…I have my life here. My future."

He nodded and looked down at the floor and then up at her again. "I guess that's a no." He started backing away.

"It's not a definite no." She tried, desperation running through her body at the sight of him walking away from her. "It's…It's a no for now. Not forever."

He shrugged his shoulder. "What's the difference?" The look on his face before he turned around and walked out the door explained that it wasn't a question that demanded an answer.

She sat down on one of the boxes and buried her face in her hands, crying. Why did it have to be like this? Why should she have to choose between her future and love? Why couldn't she have both? Why was he being so unreasonable?

Rory sighed and stared out the window as the bus drove into Stars Hollow. It looked the same. She had been gone for a year and the town still looked the same. Somehow she had imagined it would look different.

She got up from her seat when the bus stopped at the center of town and grabbed the suitcase on the seat next to her and got off the bus.

She stood on the side of the street and inhaled a deep breath through her nose. It smelled the same as well: fresh. She had missed the fresh air in Stars Hollow. New York may have a lot of things, but they definitely lacked the fresh air that flowed through the small town of Stars Hollow.

A feeling of defeat and sorrow filled her as she let the breath out. How could things ever have gotten this messed up? She sighed again and started walking with determined steps towards her mother's house. She walked fast; as if she was afraid she might jump onto the bus and go back to New York if she didn't move away from it quick enough.

She hadn't walked far from her dorm room before she spotted him at a bench close to the parking lot. He was sitting, leaned back against the bench, staring up into the sky. She walked up to him and sat down next to him. He didn't even flinch, he just kept staring at the sky. She leaned back and followed suit, neither of them saying a word.

"Where would we live?" She asked after a while, breaking the silence.

In the corner of her eye, she could see his head moving when he changed his eyes' focus from the stars above them to her face. She swallowed and watched the sky intently, waiting for his answer.

"My mother sublet her apartment when she and TJ moved to Stars Hollow. The current tenant is moving out at the end of the month. Liz is friends with the landlord and if I want to, they'll sign the lease on to me. Or us, if that's what you want."

She nodded and met his eyes. "I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"I'm scared that if I leave Yale, I'll never come back, I'll never graduate, I'll never be a real journalist."

He nodded. "So don't leave."

She shook her head. "I'm scared that if I don't, I'll lose you."

"You'll never lose me."

She shook her head again. "But that's not fair to you; asking you to wait on the sidelines while I'm out having the whole college-experience. I can't ask that of you. I can't ask you to put your life on hold until I'm ready."

"So come with me." He sighed and got up from the bench and looked down at her. "Rory, I can't make this decision for you. You have to decide for yourself. Look…" He picked up a torn notebook and a pen from his back pocket, scribbled some numbers down on one of the pages and then ripped the page out and handed it to her. "…I have until Friday to make a decision about the apartment. If you don't call me, I'll assume the answer is no."

Rory slowed down her steps and came to a full stop as she entered the driveway in front of her mother's house. She took a deep breath as to strengthen herself before starting up again, walking towards the front door.

She closed her eyes and tried to push back the tears that threatened to leave her eyes at the thought of what she left behind. The thought of how she gave up.

She shook the thoughts away and opened her eyes and knocked on the door, hoping her mother would welcome her back without actually uttering the words 'I told you so'.