They're almost horizontal on the couch, one of his arms around her, the other hand entangled with her own. His hand touches her wrist, and he pulls back.

'Hey, hold up a second,' He sits up and Rory looks at him, surprised, but slightly relieved. She never knows how far she can go with him, how far she wants to go.

'What's up?' He's still holding her wrist.

'We're together now, right?' His eyebrow quirks, making that horrible question that no-one wants to ask so much easier. What he's asking is are you my girlfriend? Rory feels a stupid little thrill, even though she'd been in a relationship for so long before, and had never felt like this. So...attracted.

'Yes, I mean, I think so, aren't we? Because if you'd rather not you've really gone to a lot of trouble to get me if you don't want me anyone. Was it all a game-' She rambles and he cuts her off.

'I want to be with you, word-a-minute. I just meant, isn't there some kind of rule where if you're with one guy, you shouldn't be wearing another guy's bracelet?'

She looks down at her wrist, Dean's present still there, cutting off circulation since that day she lost it.

'I forgot, I'd just got used to it,' she wrinkles her nose, and neither of them comment that perhaps that's what happened to Dean too. She was used to him.

'Well, maybe it's time to be free again,' he starts to untie the strands, and releases her, holding the bracelet out to her. They are silent for a moment.

'How symbolic,' Rory comments, and he cracks a small smile.

She strokes the bracelet softly, saying goodbye, and then puts it in her pocket.

'What are you going to do with it?' He asks, relaxing back against the couch and pulling her with him. It's easier to talk to her when he doesn't have to look at her. He's secretly terrified that disappointed look will grace her features, the same one that everyone else he's ever cared about has looked at him with at some point in his life. He doesn't want that from her.

'It'll return to the Dean Box,' she shrugs.

'Which is?'

'We broke up before, once. You put everything they gave you, everything you shared in a box, and you lock it away, until one day, when I'm old, much older, I can look back at it and smile. That's Mum's theory anyway.'

He smiles at Lorelai's never ending weirdness, and tries not to think about what his box will look like. What will she put in a box, what has he ever given her?

'I can't give you anything,' he doesn't mean to say it out loud.

'What?'

'He gave you a bracelet and I gave you a cast for a fractured wrist. He made you a car, and I wrecked it.'

'Again, symbolic,' she nods with a little smile.

His mind runs away for a moment. Not only would he not make her a car, he couldn't if he wanted to. He's from New York, for heaven's sake, they use the subway. No-one drives in the city unless they have to. And a bracelet? He's a guy, he doesn't have a sister, he doesn't know what girls like, beyond the obvious. He wants to please her, and how can he, when the Great Green Giant treated her like a porcelain doll? He's going to lose her now he's got her, he's just got to accept that she's going to see the real him soon enough. She'll be disappointed, better to just wait it out and hope for the best.

'Jess?' He's been silently glaring into space for a few seconds, and she puts a hand on his arm.

'You've got it wrong,' she says gently, 'he gave me a bracelet, you gave me notes in the margins. He gave me a car and you won me first prize in a snow-man making competition.'

His lips quirk up slightly, and he looks at her as she leans back in his arms, snuggling to get comfortable. He reaches into her pocket and pulls out this bracelet. It's not a problem, and yet it's caused enough of them.

'I had this,' he says, 'when you lost it, I had it. I put it back in your room.'

She sits up in surprise and stares at him.

'I didn't steal it,' he says defensively.

She shakes that thought away with a "well, duh" expression.

'You left it on the bridge after the basket festival thing, and I picked it up. I didn't know he'd given it to you.'

He sounds sad and she can't figure out why.

'I thought it'd be an excuse to see you, I'd had to shanghai you into sitting and talking with me, so I guess I was gonna hold the bracelet ransom or something?'

'You didn't have to shanghai me,' she says, 'I just had to deal with Dean.'

They don't say anything for a while, and she doesn't know what to say to make it better. Maybe this is why he never says anything about feelings, it's just uncomfortable. Awkward. Maybe she'd rather not know?

'I can't believe I took it off, the bracelet, when I was sitting with you. I never usually took it off. Ever.'

'Symbolic,' he says, that lip quirking again.

'Yes, symbolic,' she smiles up at him, and he notices that look in her eye, a new look, one that he brings out in her. 'You know, he may have given me a car, but there's something better you can give me.'

He knows the game and draws her to him, until they're almost horizontal once again. He's never going to make her a bracelet. And she's really, really glad.