Okay, tar and feather me, draw and quarter (no, eighth,no, sixteenth) me, flog me, I'm a terrible updater. Enjoy this fun littler update and maybe don't come at me with pitchforks? I'll get better at this update stuff, I swear!
Okay, so I was watching Nag Hammdi is Where They Found the Gnostic Gospel (I just love saying the full title of the episode!) and this idea struck me: What is Jess didn't run out of Weston's right away? What if he told her what he had to say and then they still kept running into each other? Can you say awkward? Oh, and some dialogue is directly lifted from the episode (I looked at transcripts to make sure it was right), and some things have been minorly changed on purpose.
And resemblence I bear to any owner of Gilmore Girls is purely conicidental. If I owned Gilmore Girls...well...

Rory slipped into Weston's Bakery. Oh, thank God, she thought, warmth! After the tundra that was the Crap Shack, Weston's was a downright paradise of coffee, pastries, and heat! She walked to the counter and asked the young man behind it for a large coffee and cherry Danish. As she took the Styrofoam cup he handed her and turned toward the coffeepots, she happened to glance at a table tucked into the corner, and saw Stars Hollow's own rebel without a cause. Jess Mariano himself was sitting in the windowed corner, reading some paperback novel. He looked up and the exes made brief eye contact, both looking akin to a deer in the headlights. Jess stood up, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, and walked toward the door. As he reached for the doorknob, he turned around, and quickly strode back to Rory.

She stared at him, confused. Long moments of tense silence stretched between the two, but they didn't break eye contact. Finally, Jess drew in a breath.

"Can we talk?"

"What could you possibly have to say to me? It's a little late to tell me about your relocation. And, you know, for months, I have wondered what you would say if I ever ran into you again, after you just left like that. No note, not call, no goodbye. You just left, to California, and now, months later, you want to talk? What? What is it than you could say?" Rory's speech left her short of breath, chest rising and falling rapidly as she willed her face not to betray her inner turmoil.

Jess stared back at her for several more long moments, his intensely dark eyes burning into her crystal blue ones. Finally he said calmly, "I love you." After another millisecond of staring at her, he turned and left the bakery, leaving a shocked Rory to ponder his declaration.

A half hour later, Rory and Lorelai were firmly settled in front of Babette's cozy fire, with her calling to them from the kitchen how nice it was that they were visiting. The Gilmore Girls had made up a legion of excuses for their impromptu visit to their eccentric neighbor's house, none of which involved the truth: that their own home was simply too cold. Babette brought the girls two mugs of hot chocolate, prattling on about the exciting Firelight Festival.

"Well, the festival should be quite a shindig. Just watching Kirk trying to get those stars hung was worth the price of admission. You know, he insisted on demonstrating the correct way to hang 'em and treed himself. It took the fire department and two cans of tuna to get him down. Plus, the whole town is buzzing about Jess coming back. Stupid little pisher, trying to sneak out of town without anyone knowing. This town, what is he kidding?" Babette's scoff punctuated her thought neatly. She turned to Lorelai and Rory for backup and quickly seemed to realize her faux pas when she saw the look of careful rumination on Rory's face. "Oh, I'm so sorry, sugar. Here I am, going on and on about Jess…" she began worriedly, when Rory interrupted her.

"It's fine, Babette. I'm fine."

Lorelai confirmed hastily, "She's fine," desperately wanting it to be true, but doubting it was.

Babette was not satisfied, though. "You sure?" she asked, to which Rory and Lorelai both replied affirmatively.

As an afterthought, Rory added, "I saw him." When both Babette and Lorelai appeared too shocked to answer, she continued. "Yeah, I saw him, and even talked to him in Weston's today. He told me…" She trailed off, suddenly not sure if she wanted her loudmouthed neighbor to know this next bit of information. She rewrote the interaction briefly, stating diplomatically, "He told me what's been going on in his life."

"Oh, well, that little jerk! Tryin' to pretend you're such great friends and all that, when he broke you heart like he did…" As Babette verbally flogged Jess, Rory caught Lorelai's eye and made a face to indicate there was more to the story.

Lorelai caught on quickly, and, being a master of escape, excused herself and Rory from the house, thanking Babette for such a wonderful chat. Once outside, mother turned to daughter and said authoritatively, "Spill. What did Holden Caulfield really say?"

A slightly ill look came over Rory's face as she remembered the encounter. "He told me loved me. Loves me," she corrected hastily, reminding herself that Jess' declaration had been in the present tense.

Lorelai gaped for a moment. "He what? That little punk! He thinks he can just waltz back into your life and tell you he loves you after running off to God only knows where and probably getting into all sorts of trouble…"

Rory rushed to placate her mother. "Mom, calm down, it's fine." Lorelai looked at her doubtfully. "Well, I think it's fine. Maybe it's fine. I don't know, Mom, I think I still love him, which is dangerous, because he's only in town until he can get his car fixed and…you're shaking your head at me, why are you shaking your head at me?" Rory finished hysterically.

Lorelai was now the mollifier, soothing Rory, "I don't know, kid, I just think that maybe you do still love him…and maybe that's not all that bad." When Rory stared at her mother in absolute shock, she hastily continued, "I mean, not that I'm Jess' number one fan, because you know I'm not. And if you ever want to talk about how much you hate Jess, I will be more than willing to listen sympathetically. He's certainly low on my list of favorite people, right below George Bush but a smidgeon above Emily Gilmore. But…well, Rory, you did love him. Anyone could see it. And even though he treated you terribly, I think he really loved you, and apparently he still does. So…well, maybe it's something to consider, this whole mutual loving each other thing. It might end badly, but, then, couldn't everything? I mean, you and Dean loved each other, and look how that turned out. But…well…maybe this is your chance to reach for the brass ring, and you don't want to miss it, do you?"

Rory regarded her mother with more respect than she ever had in the past, a terribly difficult feat, considering their relationship. As the entirety of Lorelai's speech sunk in, she couldn't help but be puzzled by one thing. "Brass ring?"

Lorelai stared at her daughter. "That's what you got out of that very Anywhere But Here moment we had?" When Rory continued to stare, Lorelai sighed. "You know, like in old-timey carousels? You had to grab the brass ring? No?" Rory just shook her head, seeing more and more of the craziness the town associated with her mother. "Anyway, if you really think you might still love Jess, go for it. I promise, I'll kick anyone's ass who even thinks of saying something stupid about it."

Rory laughed in relief, realizing how hard it was for her mother to swallow her pride and essentially give her blessing to a relationship she had condemned from the start. She was overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of this gesture, and could think of no appropriate response but a tearful hug.

Rory walked into the bookstore, a new brightness in her day after her talk with her mother. She walked right to the counter and cheerfully greeted Andrew, asking, "Can you track these down for me? They're all out of print," as she handed him a list of titles. Andrew immediately agreed; there was nary a townsperson who wouldn't immediately bend to Rory Gilmore's will. She kept moving into the store as if she had never stopped, strolling right up to the Recent Releases shelf and beginning her browse. As she turned a corner, she nearly tripped over Jess, who was tucked away reading again—a different novel, Rory noticed, than the one he'd had that morning at Weston's. He scrambled to his feet, ready to leave her alone, when she grabbed his arm.

He turned to face her, curious, but also a bit irritated. "Look, Rory, I already humiliated myself today twice; that's about my quota, so if you don't mind?" Andrew immediately noticed potential commotion and ushered the pair outside. Once out in the bitter Connecticut cold, Rory turned to Jess.

"Are we going to have another one of those moments where we just stare at each other before we say something? 'Cause if we are, can we fast forward? I'm not really in the mood to gape at each other for forever," Jess griped. He was still sore from his argument with Luke about his mom's new boyfriend.

"Um…well…I was thinking about what you said earlier. You know, in Weston's? And, well, I was thinking about it, and I guess you already know that I loved you in high school, because I kinda chewed you out on the phone and told you that, but I guess the thing is that I still do love you, and when you told me that you love me in Weston's today, it really made me think about if I still love you, and, well, I do. So, that's kinda it. And, um…I can keep rambling, but I get the feeling you're laughing at me internally, because you're smirking at me, but I have too much momentum right now to stop babbling, so I'm just going to keep it up until you stop me…or, you know, someone else might stop me, too, but—"

"Rory!" Jess interrupted finally. "Rory," he repeated more softly, "take a breath every now and then, would you?" Rory just looked at him, wide-eyed. Finally, the content of her breathless ramblings hit him. "Wait, so you're actually telling me that you're not horribly disgusted by what I said? And that you, in fact, reciprocate these emotions?"

Rory laughed. "Yes, that is precisely what I'm saying." Jess stared at her in disbelief for another moment before gathering her in his arms and kissing her the way he had a year ago, when their relationship was still fairly new, and neither could have predicted the turn it would take.

Hours later, Rory and Lorelai returned from the manuscript charity function, and agreed to split up to get food. As Rory was waiting in line at a hamburger stand, Jess approached her.

"So," he began, shoving his hands into his pockets to hide them from the cold.

"So," Rory repeated, worried that he was about to tell her he was leaving again.

"Gypsy fixed my car," Jess informed her, as if this was small talk and not possibly the beginning of a heartbreaking second goodbye.

"Great," Rory forced out.

"And, you know, I was planning on leaving as soon as my car was fixed," he continued, prolonging this very painful conversation. Rory nodded, not trusting herself to speak. "But, you know, now, I think I'll stick around. Maybe see if I can crash with Luke for a while longer. Who knows? I may even do community college. I hear they accept a GED." He smirked, knowing that his lead in to this announcement had tortured Rory. "And this way, I'll be able to spend way more time with my girlfriend." He may have been about to say more, but Rory cut him off by flinging her arms around his neck and throwing her entire weight at him so he had no choice but to catch her.

"Jess!" she squealed. "You got your GED? When?"

"In California, while I was still there. Not too hard. C'mon, let's go." He changed the subject, leading her by the hand across the street, weaving back and forth until they finally got across the street. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and dropped a kiss to her temple.

"I love you," he said into her hair as she grinned.

******************************THE END******************************

Does it even kind of beging to maybe make up for my terrible updating habits? My What If? Vineyard style story may actually be updated soonish, although it will no longer be secondarily Sophie, because, clearly, I no longer ship Sophie. Thank God, someone knocked some sense into me! It'll still be mainly Java Junkie, though, because, hey, how could I pass that up? Love you all, and reviews are always welcome, as long as all criticism is constructive and not nasty. Because, seriously, guys, if you're going to leave a nasty, unconcstructive review, you may as well not leave one.
Much love if you review, or even if you've read this far! Again, I'm so sorry for my poor updating habits! I've been going to support groups, and I'm getting better.
xoxo, Drama Queen