A/N: It's a slow day in the diner the day after Rory both lost, and found, her bracelet.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not now, not ever.
Getting Along
It's two in the afternoon and the diner is almost eerily quiet, its sole occupant almost giving the impression of being part of the inventory where he stands behind the counter, bent over a book. If it weren't for him occasionally turning a page, nothing in the room would be moving.
The silence is suddenly broken when the door flies open, allowing a chilly breeze to enter the diner, rustle the pages of the book, and cause Jess to look up from his reading.
"My God, I need coffee!" Lorelai declares dramatically almost before the door is open, drowning out the little bell announcing her arrival. "And don't you dare tell me I don't get any more coffee today Luke, 'cause…"
Her tirade stops abruptly when she looks up and finds herself face to face with someone who's definitely not Luke and she halts her steps, as if unsure if she should continue further in or not. "You're not Luke," she states, almost accusingly.
"Huh, you don't say," Jess mutters, not completely suppressing the urge to roll his eyes at her.
Still standing where she stopped Lorelai looks around the room as if Luke would magically appear if she just wishes it hard enough. "Where is he?" she finally asks when it's clear that he won't.
Jess shrugs and marks his page in the book before closing it. "Not here," he supplies. "You wanted coffee?" he adds after a second's thought, resting his hands on the counter.
"Uh, yeah…I…" Lorelai hesitates, but decides she's being ridiculous and lets go of the door handle, moving over to the counter. "I really need coffee."
Jess nods and pulls out a mug, fills it with coffee and sets it down in front of her, watching, almost amusedly, as she eagerly grabs it, before going back to his book.
And almost as if nothing had happened, the diner is once more silent while Lorelai savours her coffee, the only sound in the air the slow turning of the pages of a book.
But it doesn't take too long before the coffee mug is empty and Lorelai finds the silence deafening. She gives her watch a quick glance and realizes it's only been a couple of minutes since she entered the diner.
"Wow, slow day," she suddenly blurts out, startling both herself and Jess, who stops reading and glances up at her with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm waiting for Rory," she quickly adds, as if that would make the situation any less awkward.
"Right," Jess offers, dragging it out, and frowns at her. He continues to watch her for a few moments, but when she doesn't say anything else he turns his attention back to his book.
"She's supposed to meet me here for coffee so we can plan tonight's movie night," Lorelai continues not long after, playing with her empty coffee mug absentmindedly as she talks. "She went to meet Dean for lunch, and…"
"More coffee?" Jess interrupts her, not wanting to hear anything else, especially not anything to do with the bean stalk.
"What?" Lorelai asks confused.
Jess shrugs and puts his book down again. "Should keep you occupied enough for a while so you won't have to talk to me."
"Oh." Lorelai frowns. "Well, you know me; I'm not comfortable with silence."
"You don't have to pretend," Jess scoffs. "You hate me, I get it. Whatever, it's fine. Not like it never happened before."
"I don't…" Lorelai starts, but Jess raises an eyebrow at her and she sighs. "Fine, maybe I do. A little. But it's not like you never gave me a reason to."
"Yeah well," Jess shrugs. "You want the coffee or not?"
Lorelai gives him a doubtful look and he shakes his head and fills her mug. The pot is almost empty, so he sets it down in front of her and turns around to start a new one.
For a few moments Lorelai sits and stares at the coffee pot in front of her; then she shakes her head and grabs her newly filled mug, taking a sip and continues waiting for Rory in silence. The only sounds in the diner are the soft rustle of paper and water as Jess fills the coffee machine and then a clink of metal followed by a low murmur as the machine starts.
And then it's back to the same scenario as a few minutes ago; Lorelai sitting looking down in her coffee mug and Jess leaning on the counter, reading. But once again the coffee can't last forever and once again Lorelai finds the silence pressing in on her.
"You know, I promised Rory I'd give you a chance." She isn't sure why she says it, but the words are out of her mouth before she can stop them.
Jess' eyes stop scanning the page in front of him, but he doesn't look up. "Huh."
Lorelai glares at him, but holds back her remark, promising herself that Rory will pay for this later and quickly revises her movie list for the night. "So, what's the deal with the bracelet?"
"What, you didn't get everything you wanted to say about that out yesterday?" Jess scoffs, still not looking up from the book, but tensing ever so slightly.
"Yes, I did say plenty, didn't I?" Lorelai agrees and nods to herself. "So why don't you tell me what really happened?"
Jess finally looks up and stares at her in disbelief. "Why?"
Lorelai gives him an evil stare and has to use every last bit of self-control not to lash out at him again, but she takes a deep breath and swallows the urge. "I told you, I promised Rory I'd give you a chance."
Jess keeps looking at her for another second and then nods slowly, remembering his own promise, before walking over to the newly made coffee. Without asking he pours her another refill and sets the pot down on the burner again. "That Bid a Basket shindig," he finally mutters, his back still turned to her. "I found it on the bridge. She must've dropped it or something."
"Oh." That's not what she expected, but she actually does believe it. Strange.
He shrugs and turns around, matching her stare defiantly. "Wasn't even sure it was hers. Until that whole crazy freak show yesterday."
She holds the stare. "You were together quite some time that day, weren't you?"
"So?" It comes out way too defensive for his taste.
"It never occurred to you to ask her about it?"
He shrugs noncommittally. "Must've slipped my mind."
"Right," she scoffs. "Convenient."
"Whatever," he mutters, taking the empty coffee pot off the counter, starting off towards the kitchen.
"Hey!" Lorelai yells after him. "Don't whatever me, you little punk."
He turns back around, coffee pot still in hand and rolls his eyes. "Here we go again."
"Well, I'm not the one with anything to answer for."
He sighs, and puts the pot back down on the counter. "Look at it this way. If I hadn't found that bracelet, it would probably have been gone forever, and where would that leave Rory with her oh so perfect boyfriend and that ridiculous lie she made up about having a rash? At least this way she could pacify the giant oaf and they can go on living their happily ever after."
The last words are venomous, and he doesn't look back as he walks into the kitchen, leaving a stunned Lorelai at the counter. He rinses the pot out, more vigorously than necessary, earning a strange look from Caesar who's preparing for the dinner rush, but he ignores it.
Out in the diner, Lorelai stares at the opening to the kitchen, wondering what just happened. The realization that this hoodlum, this wise ass, whatever fits, not only has a point, but actually might truly care for her daughter is both strange and confusing.
She's still sitting there, lost in thought, when he comes back out a few minutes later.
He stops dead in his tracks, staring at her in disbelief. "Huh."
She just sips her coffee, and an awkward silence settles over them. He busies himself with emptying the old coffee filter, putting in a new one. Then he notices a small stain beside the coffee maker, and gets the rag to scrub it off.
The diner is still empty, save for the two of them, and she's still not saying anything. He's acutely aware of her presence though, and his whole body itches to get out of there again. But he won't give her the satisfaction.
Lorelai is just as antsy, the urge to bolt out of there overwhelming. But she's waiting for Rory, and she'll be damned if she'd let this punk chase her away. And she just refuses to acknowledge the fact that he might actually not be the antichrist she sort of, maybe, wants him to be.
Jess eventually sighs, cursing Rory for making him, sort of, want to get along with her mother. And himself for letting her get to him in the first place. "I actually were looking at her books yesterday."
Lorelai is startled out of her troubled thoughts, and frowns at him. "What?"
"We were talking about Salinger after that picnic thing, and I wanted to put some notes in her copy of Franny and Zooey. Took longer than I thought."
She narrows her eyes at him. "You were writing in her book?"
"She won't mind," he dismisses.
"You sound very sure about that," Lorelai mutters.
He shrugs. "You can ask her yourself."
"Ok, fine," she relents. "If we ignore your tendencies for destruction of property, what you're saying is, that if you hadn't defiled her book, I wouldn't have caught you?"
"Pretty much," he agrees, with another shrug.
"Huh."
It's his turn to frown. "What?"
"You're saying the only reason you got caught is because you got stuck in a book."
By now he's scowling at her. "Do I have to spell it out for you?"
"Don't get wise with me again," she warns.
"Then stop making it so easy," he shoots back, ignoring her murderous glare.
Lorelai is once again suppressing the urge to strangle him right there at the counter, taking a couple breaths to calm herself down. "Why are you even telling me any of this?" she asks instead.
He sighs, once more cursing himself. "Because, I sort of made a promise to Rory too."
Lorelai eyes him suspiciously. "Huh? What kind of promise?"
Jess is silent for a few seconds, trying to remember exactly what she had said. "That, if I thought of her remotely as the sort of person that I could occasionally stand to talk to then I would try to get along with you."
"Rory said that," Lorelai concludes after a moment, recognizing it as something that her daughter could very well come up with when feeling especially awkward.
"She did," Jess confirms. "After a whole lot of other ramblings. Sound familiar?"
"Well, not really, but there was something about Luke being important to us, and me not giving you a chance could possibly be damaging my supply of Luke's coffee."
"Huh, so she resorted to blackmailing you too?"
"Yup."
They both grow silent again, mulling things over.
"So, the million dollar question..." Lorelai then continues somewhat regretfully. "Why?"
Jess looks at her incredulously. "You're asking me?"
"Well..."
"I thought you were her best friend," he continues. "Shouldn't you know her best?"
"Apparently not as well as I thought," Lorelai mutters. To be honest, she does have an idea, but it's not something she really wants to think about.
On his side, Jess is also thinking about what might be the answer, but soon dismisses it as wishful thinking. No point in dwelling on something that most likely is just his own imagination.
To his surprise, it's Lorelai who breaks the silence next. "You know, before everything went down with that bracelet, we did actually, kind of, get along."
He's surprised to say the least, but just nods. "Probably the chicken."
"Quite possibly," Lorelai quickly agrees. "But...maybe, and this is a big maybe, we could try to be at least civil towards one another."
"Huh." Jess blinks, certain he's heard wrong. "You serious?"
"Well...yes?"
Jess watches her for a few more seconds before he hears himself agree. "Ok."
"Ok?" She looks just as confused as he feels.
He shrugs, reminding himself that this is for Rory, silently wondering when he started doing things because of her. "Sure. Couldn't hurt too much. Right?"
"Right," Lorelai agrees, wondering what she's getting herself into, and where this will lead.
They're saved by the bell, quite literally, as it chimes happily, announcing a newcomer to relieve the tension. Or maybe not.
Lorelai looks up just as the bell sounds, and catches Jess' expression when he sees who it is. She doesn't have to turn around to know. There's only one person in the world who could make him, almost, smile.
But only for a second. Then he turns away, taking out a new mug, and when he turns back with the mug and coffee pot he's wearing his usual smirk.
When Rory reaches the counter, and excitedly hugs Lorelai, there's coffee in her mug and Jess is once more leaning over his book.
The girls talk excitedly, but Lorelai can't deny the way her daughter keeps looking over at the troubled boy at the other end of the counter.
After a few minutes Jess looks up, a clear question in his raised eyebrow, and Rory blushes ever so slightly before asking what book he's reading.
Lorelai watches the interaction that follows, and can no longer ignore the obvious. She knows where this is leading, has known for a while, even though her daughter is still in denial.
But, today is the first time she considers it without feeling like it's the end of the world.
Huh. Who would've thought...