A/N: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

Lorelai pulled into her driveway and cut the engine. She opened the door to the Jeep and crossed the yard to the front steps. Dean was sitting there.

"Dean?" Lorelai walked up to him.

"She likes Jess, doesn't she?" The look on Dean's face broke Lorelai's heart. He rested his forehead against the heels of his hands. "I hate it that she likes him. Why do I hate it so much?"

"I don't know." Lorelai shook her head. "I don't even know what to say."

"Please don't tell Rory I was here." Dean stood, and started to walk away. He looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Lorelai felt incredibly sad for the young man who had fallen so hard for her daughter. Rory had changed. Lorelai couldn't deny it. Rory was growing up, and it looked as if she was growing up without Dean.

"I have to, Dean. You know that."

"Why?"

"Because if you don't, I have to. You have to tell her everything you've been feeling lately. Talking to me, though I look remarkably similar to Rory, isn't going to solve anything. You need to talk to her."

"I know. I just can't."

"You love Rory, Dean. If you love her, you have to ask her what's going on."

"Where is she? Did she stay in Hartford?"

"No...she and Lane were going to hang out."

"Oh. I guess I'll see her tomorrow, then."

"Tomorrow's good. Time to think." Lorelai nodded.

"Thanks, Lorelai."

"You're welcome."

Dean walked away, and Lorelai hoped that he would go straight home. If he went to Luke's, Lorelai was afraid that he wouldn't find Rory and Lane there, but Rory and Jess. That would simply hurt him even more.

Walking around town was helping clear his head, Dean realized. As he turned onto the street by Luke's he looked through the windows. A dark diner met his sight, with only the lights over the counter lit. Rory sat there, next to Jess. Dean's heart stopped. The two were sharing a plate of fries, and talking. Their backs were to Dean. Jess accidentally knocked a fry off the counter, and it dropped to the floor. Dean walked up to the window framing the pair, and Rory got down off the stool she had been sitting on to retrieve the fry. She turned her head toward the window as she stood back up, and saw Dean. She immediately crossed the diner to the door, and ran after him as he ran down the street.

"Dean!" she called urgently, trying not to wake anyone. He kept running, and she followed. He ran home, and they stopped outside of his house.

"Why?" Dean asked, abruptly.

"Why what?"

"Why do you like Jess, Rory? It's obvious that you do. Why do you like him?"

"I don't know." she shook her head.

"Yes, you do." Dean contradicted her. "You do know."

"He...I don't know. We fit together."

"You and I don't?"

"Not anymore." Rory realized, quietly. "I'm so sorry, Dean." She moved to clasp his hand, and he moved away. He knew if she touched him everything he was about to say would fly out of his head.

"No." he stated, with determination. "If you're opting out of our relationship, breaking up with me, growing apart from me, whatever you want to call it to make yourself feel better, you don't get to hold my hand. You do not get to touch me. If it's over, it's over. It's been over for a while, and you didn't even have the guts to tell me."

"Dean-" she entreated him.

"You don't get to say my name like that. You gave up that right when you walked into the diner tonight. No "Dean". I won't come running when you say my name like that." his resolve was crumbling, and he forced the words out faster. He had to say them. "You hurt me. More than anyone else has ever hurt me in my whole life. I'm done with being hurt, and I'm done with you."

As Dean walked away from her, and shut his front door behind him, Rory knew that she wouldn't ever be able to talk to him again. He was lost to her, and by her own doing. She realized that he was right to have said everything he had said, and that she deserved it. As she walked back to the diner, she wondered if she hadn't just lost out on the best guy in town, because it certainly felt like she had.