Summary: Have you ever wondered if there's more to life than just coincidences? Rory's about to find out. Post Season Finale, and the Jess-friendly version, too!
A/N: Fixed some dreadful errors. Happy reading!
Something Impossible
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She should have been tremendously happy.
And she was. Almost.
She was Rory, again, and done playing at homemaker-cum-Emily and done with pretention and DAR parties and Dean-related mistakes and ready, finally, ready, with a pen in her hand and a notebook, to take on the world.
On her own.
Her smile faltered, faded.
On her own.
Lorelai had just kissed her goodbye, and her joking banter had barely covered the thinly veiled despondency that lingered around the curve of her smile. Rory hugged her at the terminal before boarding quickly, her head erect and briskly moving forward because she was so very sure she'd run back into her mother's arms and sob and be a child again.
She sat stiffly in the passenger seat, her hands clasped in her lap and willing herself not to cry. This was what she'd wanted all along, wasn't it? Well, wasn't it? Wasn't this the big plan, the thing she'd been waiting for?
She felt someone sit down beside her, and not wanting a stranger's sympathy, turned toward the window, taking in familiar terrain for the last time in a long while.
The plane crackled into life and she watched the place she loved more than anywhere else in the world grow smaller and smaller into it dissolved into the bigger scheme of things.
Despite her resolutions, tears fell; and then the shapes and colours blended before her eyes until she could see nothing at all.
----
It was Dean and awkward first kisses and furtive glances and the newness of a relationship and puppy love. He held her carefully, as if she were made of porcelain, and just as breakable. And then there was Lane, and girlish confidences and music and...Rory choked back a laugh...Mrs. Kim's hilarious strictness and of course, on the subject of hilarity, who could ever forget Kirk? And even Taylor, with his well-meaning preaches. She would miss Luke's gruff kindness, that was certain. But at the very least, he and Lorelai had finally become a couple again. They were meant to be, it was plain from the beginning, as anyone could see.
She would even miss Logan, with his many exploits and charming ways, so akin to the very qualities that Tristan possessed, Rory suddenly realized, with a small smile.
A lump formed in her throat.
She really would miss them all.
-----
It didn't occur to her that she'd avoided thinking about the one person who'd returned to her again and again, the boy who'd told her to come away with him, to start anew in a different city, a new life. The man who'd waited paitiently for her in Philedelphia. Who still waited.
Maybe it didn't occur to her because she'd deliberately avoided thinking about him.
-----
"Some water, miss?" A stewardess offered, pulling up to Rory's section with the cart.
She smiled wanly. "No thank you."
"If you're sure..." the stewardess said doubtfully. "Do you think I should leave a glass for your seat partner?"
Rory noticed for the first time that the seat next to her had been vacated. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. Thank you."
The stewardess sniffed haughtily.
"I think that he'll need it, after filling his lungs with all that smoke." she said disgustedly. "He's off in the back, smoking cigarettes. Nasty habit, those nicotine addictions are."
She wheeled away and Rory thought nothing more of it, and throughly exhausted, fell into a deep sleep.
-----
It was Star Hollows' Annual Picnic Basket Auction and the autumn leaves fluttered in the breeze and the sky was impossibly clear. Dean was there and of course, Jess would have to be, too, his dark eyes watching her and his mouth curved into a slight smile, as if he were challenging her somehow. She felt herself stiffen when she heard his name called as the winning bidder and knew that Dean was undoubtedly furious.
She walked with him until they reached the bridge and he's laughing at her luncheon of stale Pop Tarts. He tells her that she is going to be one hell of a journalist and that he wouldn't expect anything less of her. They talk about the town and the other world that they live in, with Gatsby and Roark and Dodger and numerous other colorful inhabitants. She realizes that she is having a good time. They banter endlessly. She sees their reflection in the lake and it fits, the two of them. She knows she shouldn't be thinking this.
"Why did you do this?" she asks him.
He avoids a direct answer and makes a witty retort, but it doesn't matter in the slightest because she already knows.
------
Rory turned fretfully in her sleep, shivering from the frigid ventilation.
Someone covered her with a blanket, careful not to wake her.
He watched her sleep for a long time.
-----
The couch creaked under their combined weight and she shifted for a more comfortable position as he kisses a feather light trail down the side of her neck. His hands are entwined in hers and he pauses from his ministrations to grin at her crookedly and she thinks giddily that he must love her.
The door flies open and they spring apart, looking anywhere but each other.
"Looking for a sauce pan." Luke mutters, or something along that nature, before storming out.
The two of them regard each other silently, before bursting into laughter.
He turns to look at her seriously.
"Let's do that again." he suggests.
She certainly has no complaints.
-----
It's thundering outside and the turbulence caused her to bump her head against the wall, startling her out of sleep.
Drowsily, she turned around to see his fuzzy outline and he is exactly the same as he's always been.
"Jess?" she whispered sleepily. "Is that you?"
"Yes." he replied. "Go to sleep. You really need to get some rest, Rory."
She knows that he is only a figment of her imagination so she acquieses.
She dreams.
-----
It's her and it's Dean and they're walking to her dorm room and she knows there's something wrong with this picture, something that is out of element. Dean is leaning towards her but a voice she knows, hoarse with desperation and cigarettes is calling her name and they both turn around to see him there, and it's all too much.
Dean snarls something at him but Rory can't hear a word he's saying because she is trying to figure out how all this is happening and she hears herself telling Dean to leave and suddenly it's just her and Jess, and he's looking at her now and god, he looks so lost and he's rambling about moving to New York and her heart is too full and she can barely take it all in.
"Come away with me." he says.
She says no. Her hands are shaking. No. No. No.
He turns away and she watches him go.
-----
She awoke abruptly.
Her mouth felt dry. She desperately needed water.
He offered it to her.
She took it from him gratefully, before sputtering it all over him.
Her eyes are very wide. It was an impossible coincidence.
"Jess." she said.
-----
He cleaned himself off and she was terribly embarassed, but he only laughed it off.
"Since it's you, I'll make an exception." he said easily.
"This is so strange." she said bewilderedly. "Out of all the coincidences..."
"What if it's not a coincidence?" he said, half-bantering, half-seriously.
She laughed uneasily--she'd been thinking the same thing.
"I don't know," she said softly and he has to lean closer to catch her reply. His proximity makes her flush, reminds her of old times.
"So what are you up to these days?" he asked her, carefully changing the subject.
"I'm covering Barack Obama's campaign." she said, a flush of pride appearing on her face.
He regarded her quietly.
"Well done." he finally said, and those two words made her happier than any gushing epistle, because she saw how much he meant it, and hears an echo of his words: You'll be a great journalist someday...
"Thanks." she said simply. "What about you?"
"I'm writing a biography." he looked at her levelly. "About Obama."
She can't breathe.
She should be rational, she'd never been so silly as to take things as signs and knows that he doesn't either, but everything is adding up and it can't only be a coincidence and her heart is pouding frantically and she thinks this is it...this is what I've been missing. Who I've been missing.
"Hey, are you okay?" he looked at her with concern.
"I'm fine." she tried to smile, but he could see through her in an instant.
He looked at her and she saw it in his eyes, and it was unquestionable. Nothing had changed.
Her pulse quickened. His breath tickled her ear as he leaned in closer and suddenly she's thinking about couches and lakes and willow trees... Nothing had changed.
"Rory." his voice was soft, pleading. Raw. "Rory..."
She realized that she didn't need to hear it.
She already knew; had always known.
He held her hand tightly as the plane descended them into a new beginning.
-Fin
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A/N: Reviews will make Barack Obama win the election, I swear!