This is my first Gilmore Girls fic. I never even dreamed that I would want to write one. I can't normally portray regular people well. I've done Dark Angel, Buffy, Angel, and Harry Potter. So, no normal people as a rule. Anyway, this is a Literati and a Java Junkie, though it centers around the RJ pairing. I hope you enjoy it. Probably one update a week. I'm a college student. How much more can you expect?

Rating: Pg-13 to light R

Title: Out of tragedy…comes hope.

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I profiting from the characters in this fic. It is my plot, but that's all I own. Gilmore Girls belongs to Amy Sherman Palladino.

Summary: At Rory's Yale graduation during her valedictorian speech, she sees someone she never thought she'd see again. Logan is out of the picture for good, Luke and Lorelai are married with two boys. With her world falling in on her, and her life crumbling will Rory accept his help, or run because she doesn't want to pull him down with her?

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"Four years ago, we started this journey as a group." Rory Gilmore looked out at the crowd of her classmates, watching their faces with a keen eye. "And today, we are here, accepting our college diplomas from Yale University. It's been a long time coming. Ladies and gentlemen, parents, friends, professors, family and fellow graduates, my name is Rory Gilmore and it is my pleasure to stand before you today as the valedictorian of the Yale University class of 2007.

"We came here as unknowing freshmen, scared of classes and strangers and leaving home. We met new people, made friends, unfortunately had to leave some others behind. We grew up. We had our hearts broken, we learned what we considered to be useless facts, we discovered who we are. And now, on this day, at our commencement, we are going forth into the world and putting what we have learned to use. We are going on to careers, families, another degree. And as we look to the future, we have no choice but to also look toward the past." Rory took a deep breath, lifted her eyes from her mother's face to scan over the crowd. And she saw him. Standing far in the back, a leather jacket over one arm, smirk on the face she hadn't seen in three years. Her breath caught in her chest, and she nearly forgot where she was. Found she was unable to tear her eyes from his face.

"The past is what has shaped us. What makes us who we are today. Heartache and falling in love for the first time. Learning to deal with situations outside our control, and knowing when to step back and admit we need help. It's realizing that our parents don't know everything, and then realizing that neither do we. It's getting right back up when you've fallen down, be that literally or figuratively and forging on toward the ultimate goal. It's learning to trust our hearts, and not what everyone else says is best for us." Where had that come from? That wasn't part of her speech. Rory grappled for the right place on her index card, found it after a heart stopping second. "It's also learning to realize when we don't know what's best.

"Mom, for the past twenty two years, you have been the one constant in my life. The one person who has always been there for me no matter what happened or how bad the situation was. You were there through the volatile teenage years, the broken hearts, the moments when I felt as if the whole world would crash down on me if it hadn't been for you. You've held me up and kept believing when others would have given up on me.

"Gramma, and Grandpa, you have always been my cheering section. There to pull me up when I couldn't get on my feet myself. You've been there, behind the scenes, ready to give a shove or a kind word, which ever you thought I needed most at the time. For that I am eternally grateful.

"Luke, through the years, you have been more of a father to me than my own. You have been there to give me a shoulder to cry on, a bear hug and a good cup of coffee when the world had turned its back on me. As a stepfather, you are more than any girl could have ever asked for. You make Mom and I so unbelievably happy that words cannot express. And though your advice is more often dispensed with a hard shake then with a kind word, it is nonetheless always appreciated and oftentimes more valuable than the kind word would have been.

"My family is the reason that I am standing here. And as I graduate, I know that the four people I mentioned are more to thank than any professor at this college. Where they taught, my family learned. Where they lectured and graded, family has listened and helped. So, Mom, Luke, Gramma and Grandpa, and one person I can't mention, thank you for bringing me this far. I couldn't have made it without you." Rory smiled for the first time throughout her entire speech. "Thank you."

As Rory made her way off the stage and back to her seat, her eyes met his and he grinned. He knew she was talking about him. She hadn't intended to. It had been completely accidental. She hadn't seen him in years. He didn't belong there. They'd both moved on. Forgotten about one another. Or, at least, she'd thought they had. Apparently she'd been wrong about that. And he knew. That he knew made what had been an extremely embarrassing situation even worse. Had it just been her it would have been bad enough, but to have the person who was responsible for the majority of her heart break know was absolutely humiliating.

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The second she could escape from the people who wanted to comment on her speech or congratulate her, Rory ran into the field where the guests had sat. She shoved past her mother, grandparents, Luke, Sookie, Jackson, even ignored her two brothers, Lucas and Garrett without a word. He was still there. That was all that she could think. He was still there. He hadn't run after the ceremony. He had to have known that she would try to find him after. She deserved an explanation.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Three years had been good to him. He'd grown a couple inches taller, and a few years in maturity. His frame had filled out slightly, and he knew that several of Rory's classmates had already checked him out. The female in question, however, didn't seem to be affected by the fact that he had flown in from California just to see her graduate from college.

"Going to a graduation." He said nonchalantly. "Or hadn't you noticed?"

"Yes, I damn well noticed! It was my graduation!"

"Calm down, Gilmore. It's not a huge deal." He leaned against the wall of a building, crossed his ankles and managed to look like he didn't care what she thought. "Just stopped in to watch an old friend graduate from college. Now, shouldn't you be getting back to your boyfriend?"

"Not a huge, deal! Jess, I haven't seen you in three years! You bust into my dorm room, proclaim your never dying love for me, ask me to run away with you and then I don't hear another word for years! If I hadn't seen you, would you have stayed?" she demanded, and he squirmed uncomfortably.

"Come on, Rory, this isn't the time for this conversation."

"If we don't have it now, we'll both be dead before it happens. You have a bad habit of running out on tough situations rather than sticking around to handle them." Rory knew she was being unfair. She knew that he didn't deserve what she was throwing at him, but she didn't care. She had been hurt badly, and she'd never gotten closure. "You disappeared, Jess! Not a word to me. I was your girlfriend, dammit, and I was in love with you, and you couldn't bother to say 'later Rory, I'm moving to California with my dad, who I haven't seen in eighteen years, but have suddenly decided is so much more important than you?'"

Jess's eyes flashed, but he kept his voice level. "Still holding something I did four years ago over my head, Rory? Haven't you moved on yet? Do you have any idea what my life was like at that moment? Flunking out of school, relationship on the rocks, whole fucking town against you, and your Dad suddenly appears in the picture for the first time ever. Yeah, that was so easy to deal with." His voice lowered half a step. "And you had damn well better know that it wasn't because he was more important than you. It was that I wasn't good enough for you, and I was for him."

Rory couldn't take anymore. She turned and started to run, but found she couldn't. Jess grabbed her wrist and spun her around, gripping her hard around the waist, and bringing her body flush against his. Her breath caught, and held, her hands fisted in her robes, and she could see her mother shoving her way through the horde of graduation attendees. "Let me go, Jess."

But he shook his head. "I'll be damned if I let you walk away from me, Rory. I've let you go far too many times. Yes, I walked. I made a mistake. I'm sorry about it. But I had to put my life on track before I screwed yours up too. You deserved better than a high school drop out. I wanted to finish school, go to college. Do all the things that you believed I could do. And I did." His hand moved from her waist to the back of her neck, but she still couldn't get loose, and Luke had stopped Lorelai from coming any nearer than she was. "I got a GED, worked, went to night school, and took classes online. I graduated last weekend. And as soon as I finished walking across that field, I went home, packed up my things and booked a flight for Hartford."

Rory couldn't speak. She was incapable of words. There were no words for what she was feeling. A rush of things, ranging from joy and pride to hurt and lingering licks of anger. "Why?"

Jess plowed a hand through his hair. "What do you mean, why, Rory? Isn't it obvious? I came back for you!"

Rory managed to get loose. "I can't, Jess. I just really can't. There are things that you don't know. Things that change everything. I'm sorry." She looked up at him with tears shining in her eyes. "I can't tell you how long I've waited to hear you say that. Since the second you left, I think. But this time, Jess, I get to be the one to run away without an explanation. I have to go home."

Jess was helpless to do anything but let her go. He wasn't surprised that Lorelai and Luke soon flanked him. Lorelai slung a deceptively friendly arm around his shoulders. "I am going to warn you once to stay the hell away from my daughter. You aren't doing anyone any favors by coming back here. Not now. Not when she's got so much going on."

"What happened to her?" Jess looked at his uncle, knowing Luke was most likely to give him a straight answer.

"Luke." Lorelai muttered his name, letting him know that he was not allowed to tell Jess. Luke sighed and held up his hands in surrender.

"I'm not getting into it. I'm going to take the boys home, Lorelai and go find Rory."

He was long gone before Lorelai broke the staring contest she'd had going with Jess and realized what had gone on. "Well, hell. How am I supposed to get home?"

Jess was tempted to laugh at the irony of the whole thing. He dangled his keys in front on her. "I rented a car. Come on, I'll take you back to Stars Hollow. I want to go there anyway. And on the way, you're going to tell me what's wrong with Rory."

"What's wrong with Rory is Rory's business."

Jess didn't comment on that. "So where's this boyfriend of hers? Logan?"

Lorelai let a pained look cross her face for an instant. "They aren't together anymore."

"Why?"

Lorelai didn't know why, but as much as she had always hated Jess, she found herself noticing that he really had grown up. That he was more man than boy, and didn't make her nearly as nervous as he had before. "It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"Three months ago, Logan went out and was partying with some of his friends. Nothing new, nothing he hadn't done a thousand times before. God, Jess, I think at times I disliked Logan more than I ever did you. He was irresponsible, unreliable, a terrible influence on Rory. He got her arrested. You, at least, never got her in court. Anyway, he went to her dorm room, drunk. She let him in, tried to sober him up, and as all situations like this go, the ending is cliched, obvious and sad. He raped her. And she was okay. I mean, not like great or anything, but she was dealing with it. He left for a school abroad the next day, and Rory refused to press charges. She said it was a mistake and that she was never going to see him again, and that there was no use in ruining his life for a mistake that he made while he was drunk. She recovered. She's remarkable at moving on with her life, if you haven't noticed. Jess, she's pregnant. She couldn't take the pill because it made her sick, so she always used a condom. He was drunk, didn't use one, and got her pregnant."

Jess's fingers had tightened on the wheel until they were white and devoid of all blood. He hadn't ever been angrier in his entire life than he was at that particular instance. "He left the country?"

"The day after it happened. He probably won't ever come back here."

"Does he know about the baby?"

Lorelai shook her head. "No. Do you think I've lost my mind? I wouldn't let that scum bag within a mile of my daughter and grandchild. Look, Jess, I don't know why I'm telling you this. Maybe it's a mother's desire to see her daughter happy, but you can't give her time with this. At least not more time than you need to think things through. She's got a lot of baggage right now. I don't know how she managed to keep her grades up, and I don't know how she's going to do working at the New York Times. Especially not with a baby on the way and no one to help her. You need to be aware of all the facts and ready to deal with her reality if you want anything to do with her."

Jess looked sideways at Lorelai. "I love her, Lorelai. I loved her when I left her, and I loved her when I came back for her and she slammed the door in my face. I love her now. She's the one person I've never been able to get out of my system. The one person I don't want to get out of my system. She believed in me when no one else did. When no one else would believe I was anything but a juvenile delinquent, she defended me. And she loved me. I owe her everything."

"Don't do this because you owe her something, Jess. And I swear, if you hurt my baby again, you won't walk away from it quite so unscathed because I will come after you, and I will hurt you. I will hurt you badly. Got it?"

Jess nodded. "Got it. Now. Which way to Rory?"

Pleased with what she saw in his face, Lorelai crossed her legs. "Take the next left."