Summary: Jess/Rory. Jess' POV throughout entire story. The start of Season 6. No spoilers. Jess still thinks of Rory, but was hurt when she said she didn't want to be with him. He has no plans of returning to Stars Hollow until he gets a wedding invite from Luke and Luke asks him to come down early to see if he can talk some sense into Rory. I know, been done before, but logically, Jess would attend Luke's wedding and Jess always finds his way back to Rory, he cannot resist.

Her hair was long and silky, as black as onyx and the strands falling straight to her mid-back. He had been watching her slender form browsing through assorted Ramons albums. He rose from his chair and walked quietly to where she was standing.

"A real audiophile, huh?" he commented in a semi-hushed tone.

She turned, her silken tresses flipping over her shoulder as she did so. A flirtatious smile adorning her lips. Immediately it disappeared, as did his own identical smile.

"Jess!"

"Lane." He raked a hand through his dark hair and gave her form an involuntary once-over before returning his eyes to hers. "You look different."

She cocked her head to one side, her expression was unreadable. Jess knew she had never liked him much and felt like running away from this little Korean girl rather than be pierced with her indiscernable eyes. Instead, he quickly glanced around the record store for Mrs. Kim. He wasn't afraid of Lane's mother, but interacting with her was not something he felt up to.

"I can't believe I wasted Lorelai's patented hair-flip that, according to my mother is sinning, on you."

"Excuse me? Are you on or off medication?"

"Cute. If you don't mind..."

Lane attempted to push past him, but he held up his arm to block her path.

"What are you doing?" she demanded to know.

"Umm...how's Rory?" he asked reluctantly. He had to know. Sure, he had dated several girls since leaving Stars Hollow, and Rory, the last time, but always she was in his thoughts. Some of the girls he'd dated had conveniently resembled Rory in appearance, or in some aspect of her personality. Jess hadn't noticed this at first, but once he realized, he had to admit to himself that he was not over her.

Lane blinked at him. "Are you serious?"

"What?"

Lane shook her head dramatically. "You treated her like dirt, then throw her a very romantic let-me-take-you-away-from-all-this proposal and then high-tail it back to New York."

"Hey/she/ didn't want /me/. What did she tell you exactly?" He felt himself tensing and getting defensive.

"You know what, Jess, it really doesn't matter anymore does it? She's happy, she's doing good without you constantly toying with her emotions. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Toying with her--" He breathed a heavy sigh.

"Goodbye, Jess." With that, Lane turned on her heel and headed to the door where she was greeted by a tall blonde guy with a doofus look on his face. The guy reminded him of Dean.

Once more, he raked a hand through his hair. Blocking Rory out of his mind was not working, thinking of her was not working.

No. I can't go back there again.

"So, you're definitely going to be coming?"

Jess hesitated, then replied: "Yeah, Luke. I'll be there."

"Great. Are you going to be staying with your Mom and T.J. or should I have Lorelai reserve a room at The Dragonfly for you?

"Dragonfly."

"All right." Luke replied.

"All right."

There was an awkward silence between the two of them.

It was Luke who finally spoke. "Listen, Jess, about you and Rory--"

"Don't worry. I'll keep interactions to a bare minimum."

"Actually, Jess, maybe you could talk to her."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, um, she quit Yale--"

"What do you mean she quit?"

He heard Luke sigh heavily into the phone. "What else could I mean? I said the words, you heard them, I'm assuming you comprehended them--"

"Luke, as much as I would love to hear a long ranting diatribe, because you know everyone enjoys them so much, maybe you could just get to it."

"She's lost, Jess. Do you think you could come down before the wedding, maybe talk to her about it?"

"What about Lorelai?"

"She's tried, she's not getting through to her."

"What makes you think she'll listen to me? The last time I saw her, I asked her to come with me to New York and she was pretty final about not wanting..."

"When did you ask her to come to New York?"

"No one told you? Lane knew. I assumed everyone in Stars Hollow had heard about me begging Rory--you know what, it doesn't matter. She won't listen to me."

There was a long pause. "She might."

Jess was silent for about two full minutes. "I'll come this weekend. Have Lorelai get me a room."

"So, you're going to be in room 9." Lorelai stated. Jess noticed that the cheerful, welcoming toned she used was convincingly genuine. That was a surprise.

"Uh-huh."

"Is that all your stuff?" she asked, gesturing to his baggage.

"Yup."

She gave him a patented Lorelai Gilmore look and raised her brows.

"Jess, someday, you might actually have to use a few words that are non-monosyllablic."

"I suppose you want me to start calling you Aunt Lorelai?"

"Not a chance in the world" she quipped without missing a beat. "Alright, so Michel is going to take you up to the rooms and carry your bags...bag."

He glanced down at his worn Army duffel. "That's alright."

Lorelai placed her hand on Michel's back and firmly moved him toward Jess.

"He said it was alright. The scruffy miscreant does not need assistance, though a bath would be highly recommended" Michel huffed, his French accent drawling and haughty. He raised his nose slightly in the air, as though Jess slightly like foul, hot garbage.

Jess rolled his eyes, then turned his attention back to Lorelai. "Really. It's fine."

"Suit yourself."

As he reached to foot of the stairs he overheard Michel whining to Lorelai: "Did you see his /shoes? I should have someone follow behind him with a dust buster." The litany of complaints continued into an uncomprehension drone as Jess climbed the steps.

Ah, good to be in Stars Hollow again, he thought sarcastically.

"Why won't you leave me alone? You won't go away."

"Rory."

"What do you want?"

What did he want? "I don't know. I just wanted to see you, talk to you. I just..."

"What?" she demanded to know.

"Come with me."

"What?"

All the questions. Why couldn't she just understand?

"Come with me" he repeated. He sounded pleading in his own ears, but he didn't care.

"Where?"

What did it matter? They would be together.

"I don't know...away!"

"Are you crazy?"

"Probably. Do it. Come with me. Don't think about it."

"I can't do that." She opened her door and walked into her dorm room. He followed in behind her.

"You don't think you can do it, but you can. You can do whatever you want."

"It's not what I want."

It felt like a cold slap all over his body. He quickly overcame it. She was saying this out of hurt and didn't really mean it.

"It is! I know you."

"You don't know me!"

He had to be more rational with her, use logic and reasoning. Just the general idea he had thrown out wasn't enough for her. She wanted a plan, a discernable direction.

"Look,we'll go to New York. We'll work, we'll live together, we'll be together. It's what I want. It's what you want, too."

"No!"

"I want to be with you, but not here. Not this place, not Stars Hollow. We have to start new."

"There's nothing to start!"

"You're packed. You stuff is all in boxes. It's perfect. You're ready. And I'm ready. I'm ready for this. You can count on me now. I know you couldn't count on me before, but you can now. You can."

The disbelief, confusion and resistance in her eyes was evident. "No!"

"Look, you know we're supposed to be together. I knew it the first time I saw you two years ago, and you know it, too. I know you do."

"No, no, no, no, no!"

"Don't say "no" just to make me stop talking or make me go away. Only say "no" if you really don't want to be with me.

"No!"

He had refused to believe what he had been hearing. That final 'no' was all he needed. His heart clenched tightly and he felt his eyes watering. How could she really mean that? They were meant to be together. He saw it, and she didn't. Or she just didn't feel the same anymore. How could he have let this happen to them. It was too late. He had waited too long.

With his soul thoroughly crushed, he backed out of her door. There was no hope of having what they had. He let his tears slip silently as he walked dejectedly away.

Jess lay on the comfy bed of his room at The Dragonfly, now sitting up and sighing heavily. What was he thinking? The connection he had had with Rory had been severed--by him, nothing would change that. Still, he had promised Luke to talk to her. And he had to admit, he wanted to see her, hear her voice, even if that voice yelled at him and told him she didn't care about him. He knew he was being a glutton for punishment, but he didn't care. His mind was filled with her all the time. She was like a seductive drug and he wanted to keep coming back for more.

As he walked through town, everything was coming back to him. It had never left, but it was on him full-force. Everything made him think of Rory. He remembered when he first saw her in her room. He had acted nonchalant as she offered to borrow a book out of her vast collection. Right from the start she had been generous and open, kind without a reason behind it, other than that's just the way Rory was.

He had wanted to climb out her bedroom window and leave the freaks in the kitchen behind, taking Rory with him. She declined, saying there was nothing to do and that she was very hungry. He had stayed. Maybe he shouldn't have, but he did. He didn't want to be there, shipped off to his uncle in this freak medical experiment of a town. No one had bothered to ask what he had wanted.

He was passing Doose's Market and quickened his place. Taylor still annoyed him and he was in no mood to be called a hooligan or a bad element or some other term from the '50s. He glanced down at the sidewalk and grinned wryly. She had thought it was funny. Sure, she had yelled at him about Luke and how the town was ganging up on him, which wasn't his fault, or thinking back now, it was, but she had been amused by the chalk outline in front of Taylor's store. Somehow, Rory's opinion always got to him, prompted him to do things he might not have, such as fixing Luke's toaster to make it up to him. His reward had been a smile from her. He had to admit that she had a hold on him then and she still did now.

Things might have worked out better between them if there hadn't always been interference from other people--Lorelai, Dean, the entire town against him and his hanging out with Rory. Lorelai could only think of him as trouble for her daughter and Dean had sensed his interest in Rory from the second he met the ten-foot tall baffoon. It had amused him to mess with Dean, play on his insecurities. The guy had never deserved Rory. They didn't have anything in common. He, however, had a lot of common interests with Rory and could grasp the concept of...well, Dean couldn't grasp /any/ concept.

The sight of Dean even near Rory sickened him. At every turn, the goon had been suspicious and jealous. Even before Jess had tried to punch him, on their first meeting, Dean had not liked him. Dean had just been clinging to his "property" and was fearful of anyone who might try to take it away.

It had continued on like this for several months. Dean was always lurking around, trying to keep him from Rory, and he was ever in her life despite it. They had become good friends. He had wanted to be more than that and he knew that she did too. She was just too nice. She didn't want to hurt Dean the Queen's feelings and denied hers. She was kind and considerate to a fault. Still, he felt she thought about him the same way he thought of her. At the time, he thought it might be just wishful thinking, but time would tell that he had been right.

He found he had made his way to the small footbridge over the water. No evil swans were roaming about today. He sat down and let his legs dangle over the edge. Luke had pushed him into the water here, he'd had a picnic lunch with Rory here, Rory had confessed her true feelings about him here, after that insinine 24-hour dance marathon. He had spent several hours here reading and thinking. It was his favorite place in Stars Hollow. All of memories of time spent in Stars Hollow was bittersweet. When he had first been shipped to the podunk town, he had hated every blade of grass. He still didn't feel pleased to be around its inhabitants. Taylor, Miss Pattie, Babette, Gypsy, Mr. and Mrs. Neurotic (aka Sookie and Jackson). They all hated him. The still hated him. But Rory had always been the upside of the town, gave him a reason not to bail.

Rory. The name alone sparked a thousand memories, some that caused pain and some that were wonderful. That first, unexpected phone call when they talked for hours. The car accident that caused Rory to wear a cast for two weeks--he had been driving her car. The stolen glances they had shared that lasted a little longer than they should have. Rory visiting him in New York. The dance marathon. The sprinkler incident. The winter carnival. Rory unexpectedly kissing him at Sookie's wedding underneath the trees. He had had no idea that was coming, and was thrilled and elated, and then she ran away. Literally. Then she had left for the summer and had not called him, wrote him, anything. She had just dropped this bomb on him, then pretended he didn't exist. When she returned, she was self-righteous that he had moved on and went out of her way to whine about it. It had made him feel...justified that she was jealous. She had brought him up and down like a kite throughout the relationship. He had done the same to her in exchange, but not deliberately, not hurtfully. She always seemed to forget the things she had put him through, always focused on the way he had left her. It had been cold, but it would have been more painful and teen-angsty to have a long drawn-out goodbye. He had to be cruel to be kind. Still, maybe if he had left differently, or not left at all...

Here he was again. He always seemed to end up here, always seemed to run into Rory. This time was different. He wasn't going to just come across her and run away this time, or have her push him away. This time, it just had to been different.

Feedback is highly appreciated and please, let me know what you'd like to see in the upcoming chapters.