Disclaimer: Not Mine.

Summary: Set at the end of Tights, when Jess goes to see Rory. They both realize that they can't be with each other, but that they still love each other. When both of them express a wish to change what happened, a strange visitor grants them three chances each to change the past, at a price.

A/N: Do not ask me what drugs I'm not, I don't know. I swear... the telephone company came over today. Maybe it was their wire cutting thingies. Anyway, yes, this would be a fifth story. It's psychotic and strange and... really screwed up, but I'm going to have fun with it, I hope you do as well.

Know You're Alive

Chapter Zero

Prologue

Rated K

Tears stung her eyes as she watched him, ranting and raving. She kept saying 'no', but he kept not listening. Backing away, walking away, stumbling away, anything to make him understand that she couldn't agree to it. How was it that he could disappear for months, come back, and change everything with his mere presence? He was intoxicating. There was no other way to say it.

"No!" she shouted at him, not hearing what he was saying anymore. "No, no, no, no no!"

"Don't! Don't say no just to get rid of me, only say 'no' if you really don't want to be with me," he said, stopping her running away so that she was facing him.

"N-," she began, but the word died in her throat. She tried again. "N-."

"Rory, please," he begged, touching her arm gently.

"I can't leave," she told him, wrapping her arms around herself and attempted to get away from him.

"Please, come with me," he pleaded, gently, pulling her to him. "I can support us."

"No, I can't go with you," she told him, the tears spilling over.

"Why? Why can't you come with me?" he demanded. "I love you, you love me… don't you?"

"Jess," she said softly, moving away from him again.

"Don't you?" he pressed, standing firm.

"It doesn't matter anymore. I can't just… leave. Everything is here. My school, my friends, my family," she objected, listing them off.

"But I can't stay here," he repeated, sounding broken.

"I can't leave with you," she returned, and they stood there, watching each other, waiting for the other to make their move. She looked away from him, pulling her jacket around her tighter.

"Everyone hates me," he whispered quietly, and looked out of the doors bitterly. "I left you, I left everything."

"Yes, you did," she agreed, glaring at him.

"I'm sorry," he offered, shaking his head and looking away from her.

Time seemed to pause for a minute, and Rory stood up, walking over to him. "This isn't going to work," she attempted to convince him and herself in the process.

"Why?" he shouted, shocking her. "Why won't it work?"

"Because we're different now!" she screamed back.

"No, you're still Rory. I still love you," he denied, stepping towards her and kissing her passionately. Despite her objections, she allowed it.

"This can't happen," Rory objected again, but she was losing her will against him.

"It has to," he objected, pulling her tightly against him.

"You shouldn't have left," she whispered, feeling at home in his arms once again.

"I wish I could take it back," he sighed softly.

"I wish you could too," she whispered, and the world froze around them. At first Rory thought that it was only her imagination. The moment was so perfect, heartbreaking, but perfect. When she attempted to move out of his grasp, however, he seemed to be unable to move. She pulled away again, and his arms gave way slowly, like they were just some toy's arms that she had to physically move. She frowned, looking around in awe. A bird outside the window was frozen in mid-flight, attempting to capture a mouse running away from it.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" a voice drawled from the back of the room. Rory turned around to see a strange looking creature oogling her.

"What are you?" she asked, suddenly terrified. If this thing could stop time, what else could it do? She felt her heart in her throat, trying to choke her.

"My name doesn't matter. What matters, is that I've been sent here to help you… if you want my help," the creature told her eerily.

"What kind of help?" she asked, moving to the opposite side of the room and pressing herself against the window.

"I'm a matchmaker. It's what I do, my business, so to speak. My master was the one that brought you and… this guy," he scoffed at Jess, "together. That means that I have to take care of this mess that he started."

"What are you talking about?" she quivered, moving towards Jess to protect him.

"I'm talking about a second chance," the thing stated, and hopped off its perch. He walked towards her, and she suddenly realized that it was very, very small. It looked larger sitting in the window, but in reality, it was barely the size of her hand. "Better?"

"What are you?" she asked, very confused and not quite as scared anymore.

"As I said before, it doesn't matter. Do you want a second chance, or not?" he reminded her, poking Jess's leg lightly.

"Yes," she admitted quietly, finding herself unable to lie to it.

"Good… have you seen the Little Mermaid?" it asked out of the blue.

"Huh?" she responded in a very Jess-like manner and looked down at it.

"The Little Mermaid, have you see it?" it asked again.

"Yes," she frowned.

"Do you remember the rules that Ursula had?" it led on.

"Yeah… three days, no voice," Rory remembered.

"Great, it's always scary to describe this to the ones that haven't seen that damn movie. It's kinda sad that Disney was the one to represent our society. Anyway, this is kind of like that, 'cept you have a choice. You can either remember this moment and go back in time to try an' fix things, with something else between you, or you can go back without remembering this moment and stumble through everything again, taking the chance that you'll make the same mistakes. The thing with the first choice is, you don't know what's going to be wrong. It could be anything, and I mean that. One of you could end up in a wheelchair. Hell, one of you could even be a mermaid, for all I know. You get three chances… three days at each chance. If you don't change the future, and you'll know if you do or don't, then you blew it, and this is the way things go. Every time you change something, no matter how subtle, the future will change, but not necessarily for the better. If you change it to worse, then you'll automatically restart the day. It's a decent system," he shrugged, explaining the rules.

"What are you?" Rory inquired again, staring at it.

"Chance number one, what do you want?" it demanded.

"I want remember this," she whispered quietly, not quite sure why she was going along with this insanity.

"Goodie," the thing taunted, and then the word shifted realities.