Collection with all sorts of dabbles and oneshots for all (or a lot of) characters in Gilmore Girls

Disclaimer: I don't own GG.

[chapter] genre: angst / drama
warnings: T-ish
summary: Teary-eyed at his doorstep, he takes her back, no questions asked.
main characters/pairing: literati, hints of rogan
chapter: consequences

There was a knock at his apartment door. "Tommy, get it, yeah?" he yelled, digging through the mess of his apartment for a shirt.

"Shut up, man!" his roommate replied in a seemingly threatening voice.

He heard the door open shortly after.

"Uhh, Jess, I think this one is for you."

Looking up, Jess tossed a generic white t-shirt on and walked to the door. Who would be here? He wasn't expecting anyone, after all…

"Jess?"

He was too accustomed to that voice. In fact, the way it was said had a certain familiarity, a sweetness that pulled on his heartstrings. The girl he hadn't seen since Philadelphia, when she claimed that she was in love with her jackass boyfriend…

He took in all of her, trying not to taste more than just a one-over, as too many emotions raged through him. Surprise, was, ironically and surprisingly, not the most prominent emotion. Happiness was a little too high up on the list for his liking; anxiety, nervousness, and anger were among the other contenders.

She looked like a mess. It's not that she didn't look beautiful; she would always be, at least to him. It was just that twinkle in her eyes that she had when she was, well, pleased, had faded, her hair was crumpled, whatever make-up she had on was botched, and she looked tired and small. She seemed to have tried to embrace a rock star style, wearing layered black tank tops with what appeared to him as some out-of-date black metal lyrics, dark denim leggings (whatever those were, don't even ask how he knew, jeggings, were they?), studded boots, a vest, and some form of black aviator glasses that rested lopsidedly on her head.

"Raging concert?" was the first stupid thing that he could muster up. He suddenly remembered how infamously uncharismatic he could be at times. He suddenly remembered that this was Rory Gilmore in front of him, looking like she should have horns atop her head.

"Theme party…" she mumbled, before collapsing into his arms. He caught her swiftly, suddenly. Suddenly he remembered how good it was to feel her. Suddenly those feelings came back to toy with his heart.

"Huh."

She realized what she was doing. She took the sunglasses off, put them in her pocket, and looked down in shame. "You must think I'm an idiot, right?"

He wanted to tell her no, but suddenly his mouth wouldn't move. He shook his head slowly. God, that wouldn't convince her, would it?

"I think I should leave." She tried to wrangle herself out of his arms (as weakly as it seemed humanely possible), so it wasn't hard to stop her. He knew her. She wanted to stay.

"Don't. At least let us talk. You must be out here for some reason other than to see little old me, right?"

Helping her walk, he guided her to the pathetic little couch that sat in front of his pathetic little television. He had the urge to kiss her. He resisted, though. He wouldn't give up another chance to see her and watch her run out on such a foreign place to her.

They sat down, and then she whimpered. She put her head in her hands. "I just messed it up so bad…"

He put his hand on her back, frowning. "Messed up what?"

"My life. Everything!"

Jess was well-aware of the Gilmore tantrum, and wary of his words. "Start from the beginning…"

Sniffling, she started. "Well, I graduated. Logan proposed. I said no. That might have been stupid, but he wanted me to move to California! I didn't want to move to California. Then you know, naturally, I want to keep in touch, but it was an all or nothing type thing, apparently. I sent him letters, e-mails, little texts, but he didn't care. At least, I didn't think he did, until last week. He invited me down here; he said he would be here for one of his stupid little parties, and told me that it was this whole rocker theme, and you know me, right? Ready to jump in and look like an idiot. Well, I get there, and he's completely drunk, and then he tells me he hates me. Then he kisses me, and it's just…not what I wanted.

"He tried to pull the no-strings one-night thing with me! And here I was, feeling like an idiot, who wanted to be friends. He didn't want to be friends. He just wanted to get over me by being with me. I hate him. I don't hate him, per se, but I wasn't going to be sucked into his stupid casual-sex thing again. He is totally different. He didn't even ask me how I was. It was a whole 'I hate you, but let's do this' situation. I just can't deal with this now. I finally finished the Obama campaign trail, and I was hoping…I don't know what I was hoping for, actually. Friendship was maybe a little far-fetched. Or was it? I mean…never mind. I just gave you an earful and I'm being impolite. How are you?"

"Classy, aren't you, Rory? All that and you even manage to put a 'how are you' in there."

A little bit of sarcasm wouldn't hurt, would it? He pulled her in for a hug, and told her not to worry. 'Logan is a jackass, he was drunk, he didn't mean it, it's not your fault, it's just another stupid guy,' to sum up. But to her, he wasn't just another stupid guy, he had probably been her biggest love.

"Why do people like to leave me?" she asked, her blue eyes burning holes into him. Guilt. Was she guilting him? He felt that pang in his heart.

He knew she wasn't guilting him. In fact, that was probably the last thing she wanted to do. But who knows, maybe after the Logan process, she had turned into a minx. A minx and a vixen, who was trying to bait him into admitting that he still wanted her. A minx that wanted him, maybe. A minx who was very good at getting what she wanted.

But maybe she hadn't changed that much. She had gotten the Obama break, and she still seemed like a true-hearted aspiring goody-two-shoes journalist.

How did he have time to be thinking about this? A larger situation was looming here. He stopped for a second, before opening his mouth.

"People don't like to leave you, but they have to. They can't stay with you or else they'll never leave, and sometimes people have to leave. They have to go places, and love can't be prevented. Leaving is easier than admitting. Admitting fear, admitting desires, admitting love. Rory, nobody wants to leave you. They don't like it. They hate it. They know you like the little gestures as much as the big gestures, but you want both, don't you? You don't need a proposal; you just wanted reassurance that you could be with him. You didn't need me to do something sweet every month; you needed me to tell me that I loved you."

He knew he had hit it. She stared at him for what seemed like forever, but was really never. She closed her eyes, and told him the one thing that she knew would make it all better. He felt a hand tug on his shirt.

"Kiss me."

a/n: My first Gilmore Girls thing ever. I'm not very good at capturing the spirit of the characters, eh? Anyways, I know this wasn't really romance piece. I've had this recent obsession with PDLD and Rogan, so I'll be putting some of that up soon.