"Is this weird for you?" Dean asked Lane.
"A little." she admitted.
"Me too." Dean agreed. "I didn't...I didn't know if Rory told you to hate me or something."
"You know that's not Rory." Lane's tone was almost reproving.
"Yeah." Dean nodded. After a moment, he asked, "How is she?"
"She's okay...ish. Less okay than ish." Lane said, honestly.
"I want her to be good. Things got so messed up."
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" Lane asked. Dean was quiet. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."
"No, it's okay." Dean sighed. "I told her that I love her."
"Wow."
"And she didn't say anything back." Dean said. "It threw me off, and then we were arguing, and it ended."
"Dean, you have to understand something about Rory. Her mom and dad loved each other, and look how that wound up."
"She brought that up, and I said that saying "I love you" doesn't make things turn out that way."
"She is so shy, and sensitive, you've got to understand what a big deal it is for her."
"I wish that we could go back."
"Can't you?"
"I don't know how to. I want to."
"Oh." A new voice joined in, and Lane and Dean turned to see Rory. "I should have called first." She turned to leave. Dean jumped up from his seat and caught her by the hand. Lane slipped past Rory, with her apology written all over her face. "What's going on?" Rory asked, once she and Dean were alone.
"Lane and I were assigned a science project together. We had to work on it, and here seemed like the logical place."
"Oh. I should let you get back to your studying, then." Rory said quietly, and moved to leave. Dean held onto her hand.
"Please don't leave." Dean said. "We need to talk about something."
"What is it?"
"I still love you." Dean said, softly. "And I don't think I'll ever stop. I understand that it's a big step for you to take, and I don't care if you take forever to say it back to me, but I love you."
"You understand that it's more than just three little words?"
"It's a lot more. I get that. That's why I said it, because it seemed like we were committed to one another, and that we had everything we needed to back the words up."
"Where do we go from here?" Rory asked.
"I'd like to take you out for coffee or something. Can we start this over and put everything back the way it was? What I said was the right thing, but maybe the wrong timing. Can we try again?"
"I'd like that." Rory smiled, and Dean's heart soared. "Let's go."
"Okay."