Title:The Exchanging of Favors
Rating:R
Date Started: 2-8-08
Date Finished: 2-21-08
Disclaimer:I don't own Gilmore Girls. It all belongs to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the folks at the WB.
Summary:Rory's loss of innocence takes a more appropriate turn than it's season four curtain call. Jess owns up to his actions in a humorous confrontation with Luke. Season three Lit.
A/N:I got the idea for this in French class. My oh my, I never knew that irregular verbs could hold so much inspiration . . .
It was all a mistake really, the slipping of secrets from one source to another. He couldn't blame Lorelai completely, he wanted to, but that would have been ridiculous. It wasn't like she walked around throwing condoms in the air with K Y warming jell in her back pocket. No, this was all him. Them. All Theirs. Whatever.
The whole deal went against Jess' original plans. He was a private person by nature—after all, he was the nephew of Luke Danes—and the concept of spilling his guts to his stoic, blue-collar uncle seemed ludicrous. It wasn't that he was completely opposed to the idea of child-parent communication, that wasn't the issue at all. But Luke wasn't his father and he wasn't Luke's son—he wasn't anyone's son, not really—and any kind of conversation they could ever have about this particular subject would have been awkward and unnecessary, to say the least.
But, despite the eminent danger of being beheaded, Jess couldn't really complain.
In fact, if he was really honest with himself, he would have to admit that today—or rather, the evening before—had been one of the most sought after experiences of his teenage life, that experience being the acquisition of Rory Gilmore's virginity.
Yes, after a year of flirting and dancing around one another and stolen kisses and nearly six months of cautious dating—slip, unlock, the emergence of skin and unclaimed sweetness—he'd finally gotten the girl. He found himself returning to the memory of Rory's delicate body beneath his, how she had been innocently nervous at first but had quickly moved past her own naiveté. He couldn't stop himself from thinking about it, about the way she had gone through the movements in blind exploration, following his lead, compiling while he guided her body into things she'd only read about. It was days later and he was still in his own private after-glow.
The whole affair had started out somewhat indirectly. Not that his original intentions would matter much when he was lynched for his actions, but he had gone to Rory's house with a basic outline of what to expect, and sex wasn't even on the map or the list or in any of his organized, conscious thoughts. Perhaps his fantasies, those almost guilty dreams of Rory's hot, little body next to his in the shower or in a dark bed somewhere. But on that particular Saturday he had the simple intention of spending the day with his girlfriend. They never made actual plans per se, which he knew irritated her initially, but Jess also had a sneaking suspicion that she liked the surprise and romantic unpredictability that came along with their outings. He liked taking her out of her element, coaxing out a reaction. He found her intensity fascinating and utterly sexy.
She had led him into her kitchen where she'd left a book he wanted to borrow. It was a coy of Winesburg, Ohio, something he'd been meaning to read for weeks. It wasn't unheard of for the pair to trade off books; in all actuality it was commonplace. Perhaps that was why it didn't throw him off when she led him into her room.
The late April weather had a hold on Stars Hollow like green tipped hand. There had been a light spring rain pattering against the windows, a detail that he'd recollected some time afterwards. He sat down at the end of her bed, skimming through the yellowed pages with interest. Sherwood Anderson had been a cultural influence on Faulkner and Hemingway, so it was understandable that his attention wasn't focused on Rory completely. Perhaps she had planned it that way, perhaps not.
But it was when he looked up to her, to talk, speak, contribute, provoke, that he saw a slight difference in her. She was sitting very close to him with her hair down and curling at the ends. It fascinated him, the slight life-like change in its color due to her movements. She transfixed him. He set the book down on the painted bench that rested at the foot of her bed. Its show of childish colors should have been a sharp reminder to him of her innocence, her pinned life of chastity, but he barely spared it a glance. She stared at his lips and quite suddenly he couldn't think of a witty or crude thing to say. He leaned forward and kissed her.
For some reason he felt immensely nervous.
She seemed to sense this, so she pulled him a little bit closer to her, on top of her in the bed of her girlhood. It was the kind of thing you saw in a porno movie. The boy is lured into the girl's house and then seduced. It was a funny concept, when he stopped to consider it. He'd always assumed that she'd be too shy or too inexperienced to initiate sex, that it was something he'd have to ease her into gradually. And there he was, a fool for her call of literature and feminine willies.
Jess was drawn out of his recollections by the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs. He'd been expecting that. The apartment door opened and Luke closed it firmly behind him, obviously flustered. Jess was seated at the kitchen table with a copy of The Bell Jar in front of him. Oh dearest Sylvia, she would have been so jealous of how it happened. Not even a bit of blood to stain the sheets. But they'd done it right, with Rory on top. She'd been nervous at first, self-conscious even, but there hadn't been much pain, and for that she had been grateful.
Luke sat down in front of his nephew wordlessly. Jess held his cheek in the palm with his hand with his elbow on the table. He closed the book.
"What." Jess looked at his uncle warily.
Luke feigned a look of incredulousness. "I didn't say anything."
"You don't need to say anything, you've got the lets-have-a-heart-warming-discussion-and-then-punish-Jess expression." He scowled.
"You know Jess you're a lot smarter than you let on."
"Keep it to yourself."
"Sylvia Plath," Luke read off the author's name. "Didn't she live in a mental institution?"
"Yeah. That's what the book's about. Crazy people."
Luke turned his gaze from the small paperback. Out of sight out of mind. "I talked to Lorelai today."
"No segues? Honestly Uncle Luke, I'm devastated."
"She told me something that I found outrageous and deeply disturbing, but I decided that instead of jumping to conclusions and raising my blood pressure I'd get your side of the story first."
"How responsible." Jess crossed his arms. "And?"
Luke pinched the space between his eyes. "You. Had sex. With Rory."
There was an all-consuming silence.
"Well . . ."
"Jess," the older man sounded like he had just been delivered a telegram in the middle of a draft. "You did, you seduced Rory, I mean Rory of all people!"
"Hey, I thought you said you weren't going to jump to conclusions—"
"And I specifically told you—in this very spot—that there would be no—"
"Sex."
"Here or there or anywhere in Stars Hollow or it's neighboring counties, hell, not even in this region of the country!"
"Oh, jeez."
"You disobeyed me."
Jess rolled his eyes. "Sorry, didn't know I was supposed to play life by the Ten Commandments."
Luke didn't see the humor in the situation. "Can't you be serious for once?"
"Serious about what? You come in here and make all these assumptions because you think that you already know everything when you don't. This is why I wasn't even going to bring it up with you."
"Jess, you can't just do things like that, you have to put some thought into them and then you need to be much older with life experience—" Luke gestured wildly.
"Whoa, cool it. Are we even talking about the same thing here? Because the last time I checked, and I checked pretty recently, you don't have to be a senior citizen to have sex. What is with people and this crazy notion that it's bad to have sex when you're in high school?"
"That's not the point."
Jess raised an eyebrow. "Really? Wasn't that what you were just telling me? That I need to be 'much older' before I expose and defile someone's body—"
"Stop it."
The younger man grew quiet.
"You're not being responsible."
"How do you figure?"
"You areseventeen! You don't have the right kind of judgment for these things."
Jess sighed, "If I were someone else you'd probably be right."
"What's that supposed to mean," Luke crossed his arms.
"What do you think," Jess deadpanned.
Realization crossed Luke's face. "I should have guessed."
Luke didn't seem much surprised. Jess tried to remain expressionless.
"Yeah, well . . . "
"You don't . . . have to explain."
He nodded.
"Ok," the older man collected himself. "New rules."
"Here we go." Jess said miserably
"I don't want to see it, or hear it, or have any evidence of it where I'll come in contact with it." He paused for emphasis. Jess' mind began to wander.
"And there will be no sock hanging. Is that clear?"
He got a flash of Rory's milky white body rocking into him in her little, yellow bedroom. Her throat was widely exposed while her head tipped back. He molded her shallow breasts in his hands. He remembered her boldness coming out, Rory digging into him, saying, "Jess, fuck me, fuck me, tear me apart."
Jess pushed the memory back. "Yes," he responded.
A touch of awkwardness tinged Luke's words. "You did use a condom, right?"
Jess leaded back in his char, "Contraceptives were used, yes."
His uncle grunted approvingly.
A smirk began to from on Jess' features. "You aren't going to give me the safe sex talk, are you? Spare me, I wouldn't understand the details." He joked.
"Don't be a smart ass." Luke replied. "Jeez, how can Rory sleep with you? I can hardly stand to listen to you talk."
Jess made a valiant effort not to laugh. "Well Uncle Luke, when a man and a women love each other . . . "
"You know, Lorelai used the same expression earlier."
"She would."
"She also told me not to castrate or decapitate you, because it would upset Rory, but anything else was fair game."
"Now I see what I'm valued for."
"She didn't even call it sex, she said 'the exchanging of favors.'" Luke admitted, embarrassed.
"Because that makes it sound so much cleaner." Jess quipped.
"Let's agree to never have this conversation again."
"Definitely."
A/N:Liked it? Didn't? I'm curious, so leave me a review!
