Title: A call for help
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Rory calls Jess after Mitchum crushed her dreams. Can he make a difference? Does Rory still need to steal that yacht? Literati, and hints of Rogan.
AN: Okay, I have been toying with this idea for a while now. My mom and I always watch GG together. When Rory and Logan stole the yacht, we thought it was really OOC for Rory, and we agreed that if Jess was there, she wouldn't have done it. I thought that would make a great idea for a story. Hence this fic.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls, ASP does. If I would own Gilmore Girls, the only time 'Gilmore Girls' and 'love child' would be combined would be 'Literati love child'. Not April! GAH!
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Rory was devastated. She had a dream. She had wanted to become a journalist for about her entire life, and it was all crushed, by one man, within just a few minutes.
Mitchum Huntzberger told her she couldn't be a journalist; that she didn't have 'it', or whatever that was supposed to mean. The guy would know. He owned gazillions of papers throughout the whole country.
And, he was her boyfriend's father. The awkwardness of the situation freaked her out a bit.
She didn't want to tell Logan anything about it though. She didn't know why, but she didn't think it was a good idea to tell him.
Her mom had to know about this, Rory knew that. But her mother would get mad at Logan's family again. Rory didn't want her mother to hate Logan even more than she already did.
Telling her father would be downright ridiculous. She didn't even knew her father that well anymore. She never saw him. If she could reach him, he would probably have a million better things to do. And she didn't want him near her mother again.
Her grandparents probably wouldn't believe it. Mitchum was Richard's friend, and he wouldn't believe the fact that Mitchum said a thing like that. Emily would behave all snobby again. They didn't believe her mother when she told them about the disastrous dinner either.
Luke, her surrogate father. She really wanted to tell Luke, because he knew how much this meant to her, but he would take sides with Lorelai on this. She loved her mom, and she loved Luke, but she didn't want Logan to get killed because of this.
So when she found a torn piece of paper in her copy of Oliver Twist, that read the name Jess and a cell phone number, she knew who she had to call. Jess knew her better than almost anyone in the world, except for her mother. He knew how much her dream of being a journalist meant for her. She hoped he would understand.
Rory dialled the once so familiar number, and hoped he would answer to her. She was scared as hell about calling him, thinking he would hang up immediately when he realized it was her, and that this whole attempt was going to be pointless.
"Who is this," Jess' familiar voice said, sounding slightly irritated, but also interested. "Rory, is this you? I have caller ID, you know."
When she heard his voice, she took a deep breath. Suddenly, her throat was dry, and she couldn't say anything anymore. She grasped onto her last bit of courage, and spoke.
"Hi Jess," was all she could manage to say.
"Hello Rory," he responded. "I don't mean to sound rude, but why the hell are you calling me? We haven't spoken in ages, and all of a sudden you're calling me. Why?"
She knew she needed to explain this, but all of a sudden, she was scared, and didn't want to tell him anymore. Rory was afraid Jess would laugh at her.
"This was a mistake," Rory said, wanting to hang up on him.
"Oh no you don't," Jess said, "You're not hanging up on me Rory. You can't call me after all this time, just to hang up before you say anything."
The harsh tone in his voice made her snap back, to his hoodlum days. She remembered how she used to care about him. She knew how she still cared about him.
"Fine," she said, trying to sound a bit annoyed. "I'll tell you, Dodger. You know how I always wanted to be an overseas correspondent, right?"
He would know, right? He wouldn't have forgotten about it, right? He wouldn't have forgotten about her, right? Rory hoped not.
"Of course I know," Jess responded. "That was about all you ever talked about."
Rory laughed, remembering his sarcasm, and his ability to make her smile with that. He wasn't so monosyllabic anymore; he could form nice and full sentences now.
"I'm dating this guy," Rory started her story.
"Do you have to tell me about your love life," Jess asked, sounding a little uncomfortable with it. Of course he is uncomfortable, Rory thought. The last time you saw him, he was telling you he loved you. Nice move Gilmore!
"It has something to do with the story," Rory said. "Sorry if it makes you feel uncomfortable. Anyway, so I'm dating this guy, his name is Logan Huntzberger."
When she heard Jess chuckling, she was a bit confused. Why in the world could he possibly be laughing about that, she wondered.
"I've heard about him," Jess explained. "Son of the newspaper king. Rich playboy, who couldn't commit to one girl. Until he met you, I guess."
It hurt Rory a bit to hear Jess say that. She knew all about Logan's life, but when Jess described him, it sounded so harsh. Logan sounded like a person who didn't care about anything, which he actually was, in a way.
"That's him," Rory said. "So when I went to dinner to meet his family…"
Rory trailed off, remembering that night, the disastrous dinner. She didn't like Logan's mother and grandfather that much, not at all.
"Was that before or after the two of you got caught making out together at Emily and Richard's vow renewal," Jess asked, seeming eager to know.
"How the hell would you know that," Rory asked him in return.
"Luke and I keep in touch," Jess answered, surprising Rory. "And let me tell you, he was mighty pissed at the guy who was touching 'his Rory'. At least, that was what he told me. And what was the whole Christopher thing?"
When Jess said Luke called her 'his Rory', she couldn't help but smile. Luke really was her surrogate father. But that night, when both her fathers, and her mother caught her making out with Logan; it most definitely wasn't a good night.
"Emily was trying to get mom and Christopher back together," Rory explained to Jess. "But that was not the point of my story. Logan's family insulted me and the Gilmore name at the dinner where I met them. Logan's father tried to make it up to me by offering me an internship at one of his newspapers."
Rory vividly remembered the day when Mitchum came up to her and offered her that internship. She had been really happy. If only she had known what was going to happen.
"Logan's father is the famous Mitchum Huntzberger, I presume," Jess said.
"That's the jerk," Rory said, still mad at Mitchum.
"I'm surprised you even know that word Rory," Jess teased.
"Back to my story," Rory said. "At the end of the internship, he wanted to have an evaluation talk with me. That's when he told me I didn't have it, and that I wasn't going to make it as a journalist. I would make a great secretary, but I didn't have what it takes to be a journalist."
This story was followed by a long, slightly uncomfortable silence. When Rory heard a loud bang, and Jess swearing, she thought there must have been something wrong, until Jess spoke.
"That's ridiculous," he exclaimed. " You don't have what it takes to be a journalist? You are a great writer Rory! I have read most of the articles you wrote for the Yale Daily News. They are pretty damn good!"
Jess read her articles for the YDN? Rory was really surprised. How did he get those? Well, that didn't matter, the point was that he took the time to read them.
"You read my articles," Rory asked Jess, still really surprised.
"I'm going to lose points for stalking with that one, right," Jess asked in return. "No wait, Bag Boy was always the stalker."
Should she tell Jess about what happened between her and Dean, Rory wondered. She knew she should be honest with him, but she was a little afraid of his reaction. Preparing for a lot of screaming and swearing from his side, she decided to tell him the truth.
"I slept with Dean," Rory confessed. "When mom had the test weekend at the Inn. I know it was wrong, and that I shouldn't have slept with a married man, because he was married to Lindsey at that time, but I felt so alone, and mom was always busy with the inn, or thinking about Luke, and Dean was just there and…"
Maybe, if she just continued to talk, Jess wouldn't get mad. Rory knew that was ridiculous, but she tried anyway. She would hate it if he got mad.
"You're ranting, Rory," Jess said, sounding as if he was smiling, which surprised Rory.
"How come you are sounding so okay with this," Rory couldn't help but wonder.
"You'd rather I would have a freak out now," Jess said, sarcastically. "Come on Rory, it was Dean. Deep down, I knew that was going to happen."
Surprised as Rory was with Jess' mature reaction, she barely noticed the hurt and anger in his tone when he spoke about Dean.
"Mom thought it was going to be you," Rory confessed.
"Me," Jess sounded surprised, "Lorelai thought that I was going to be your first? Well, I could have been, I guess. If I had not been so stupid to leave you, and run off to California."
The regret was very audible in his voice, and he sounded sincere when he said he had been stupid to leave her. Rory was touched by that.
"That was a long time ago Jess," Rory said. "There was no other thing to do for me then to move on. I'm not saying it didn't hurt, but when I thought I'd never see you again, I had to. You showed up again, I was confused again. I was saying to myself that I couldn't still care about you, right? I still don't know about that."
Jess didn't respond to that. It was silent for a while, and Rory thought it might not have been a good idea to tell him all that. Suddenly, he spoke.
"Huh," Jess just said. Rory smiled.
"Ladies and gentlemen," she said, "you are witnessing an historic event. The return of monosyllabic man!"
When she started laughing out loud, she was surprised that Jess joined her. He didn't used to laugh all that much; Rory was just about the only one who could make him smile, back in those days when they were dating.
"Good one Rory," Jess said. "And thank you for telling me all that. And I just know you can make it as a journalist. You can be whatever you want to be; that's what you always said to me. Screw everyone else, and what they think!"
Rory was surprised the tables were turned; it had always been her to tell Jess not to give up. She never thought it would come to the point where Jess was giving her advice, and she accepted it, because it actually made sense. She smiled.
"How are things with you Jess," Rory inquired.
"Me, I am fine," Jess responded. "I am writing. There are even some people who are publishing a short story of mine. At least, they say they are."
If that couldn't have been able to shock her, then nothing could do tit. Jess was getting published? That was great!
"You're getting published," Rory exclaimed. "Jess, that's amazing! I am so proud of you! I always knew you could do it, Jess. I knew it!"
Jess was chuckling, and that made Rory even more happy, even though she knew he was probably laughing at her. She was just so glad he made it, glad he could finally show the world what he was worth, what she had seen in him.
"How much coffee did you have already," Jess asked Rory, still chuckling.
"Not enough," Rory suddenly realized. "I need to get some more coffee in my system. And I'm really tired too. Would you mind if we stopped talking for now? I will call you back tomorrow or so, if it's okay with you."
She was surprised at her sudden need of Jess, since he had lacked in her life for quite a while now. Rory sure had missed him a lot.
"Is that a promise," Jess asked, a little bit teasingly.
"May my coffee be taken away from me if I don't call you tomorrow," Rory pledged.
"You sure are serious about it," Jess teased. "If you don't call, I will make Luke take your coffee away, for real. I have connections, you know."
Rory was glad that Luke and Jess had kept contact, but this wasn't good. She had to call Jess, or she wouldn't get any coffee anymore. It wasn't like she wanted to call him, Okay, she really wanted to call him. She really wanted to call Jess the next day.
"You are evil, Jess," Rory joked. "Depriving a Gilmore Girl from her coffee. I will just do the Gilmore pout on Luke. Then he will give me coffee. It always works."
When Jess started laughing again, Rory couldn't help but laugh along with him. She loved it when he laughed; especially because he did it so rarely.
"So that's how the two of you do it. Luke will get warned about this," Jess teased.
"I don't mind that," Rory responded. "He already knows. He just doesn't have a cure for it. Especially when Lorelai does it. The man's madly in love with her."
She 'heard' Jess smiling again. He was laughing, and if she still knew him as well as she used to do, he had a real smile on his face. A smile that showed how much he cared for his uncle, and that Jess was truly happy for Luke.
"Yeah, the two of them are going strong," Jess said.
"They are going to get married, have children, and live happily ever after," Rory spoke. "But now I'm really hanging up on you, to get some coffee, and to get some sleep before I have my last final tomorrow."
Rory wondered if she would be able to focus on that final at all. This conversation with Jess would probably play through her head the whole time. She sighed.
"So leave me," Jess said. "But you will call me tomorrow. Remember, it's calling or no coffee for Rory. And I mean it. I won't be able to see you pout on the phone."
While laughing out loud yet again, Rory decided that she should really end this conversation now. Otherwise, they would be going on for hours and hours.
"Sure evil Jess," she said. "This will officially mark the end of this conversation. I already promised to call you back tomorrow. Till tomorrow Jess."
She found her herself not wanting to hang up. How did she get addicted to Jess again so soon?
"Till tomorrow Rory," Jess responded.
Reluctantly, Rory hung up, still smiling at the phone she held in her hand. Who would have thought that one phone call could make so many wrongs right? She smiled yet again, and dialled a number on her cell phone.
"Hi mom, it's me. You never guessed what happened at the newspaper today. You know, where Logan's father gave me that internship…"
AN: Okay, that's it for now. Tell me if I should continue. I started this as a one-shot, but I'm feeling this could be a story. How will Logan react? Will Rory still stay with Logan? Will Luke and Lorelai get married anytime soon? Heck yes, I want to continue.
Anyway, I'd love it if you pushed the pretty purple button and left me a review. Cause well, I'm a review whore/addict. I want them, I need them, oh baby, oh baby! (Who can guess where that line came from? Tell me in a REVIEW! giggle)